CHAPTER 6: THE CONSEQUENCE

THE CONSEQUENCE

Morning came, and everything that happened last night felt like a dream. A beautiful one.

My heart felt better and lighter. I've got no loads stuck painting my present, and somehow, I am starting to be thankful that Eric was there.

"Morning, sunshine," I yawned.

Groaning as I stretched, I heard loud murmurs from outside my house.

Out of curiosity, I went to the door to check it out.

But as soon as I realized what's really happening, my groggy state melted when I saw paparazzi and reporters gathering around my place.

"It's Miss Allen!" One of them yelled, and as if they're bees looking for their queen, they flew straight to my porch with their microphones and cameras pointed at my morning face.

I haven't washed, my hair sure looks like a bird's nest and my clothes aren't presentable.

"Oh, no, this is a huge problem."

I immediately closed my door, double locked it, triple licked it, and closed all my windows.

"Oh my gosh, what is happening?!"

Headed straight to my room, I looked for a mirror and started knocking on it. I hope that the old lady might show up and talk to me.

"Old lady? Where are you? I need you right now!"

Panicking, I peeped at all the mirrors I have inside my whole house, but I've got no luck.

I slapped myself, trying to convince my idiocy that I'm living in a dream for a second there before peeking outside the window once again.

But no.

The press, the gossipers, they are waiting for juicy details.

"Did I kill someone while I'm asleep? Oh my gosh, am I going to prison?" Flicking my hands in the air as I pace back and forth.

"More like going to suffer in the eternal fire," the old lady spoke, causing me to jump ten feet high and fall on my butt. "I remember that your kind uses the term 'hell' for that place."

She's sitting on my couch, looking at a magazine full of half-naked men. She's sitting like a queen bee. All that she ever needs is a crown and a palace.

"How did you get in?" I grunted, massaging my bottom that faced the floor and crawled to bed.

"I can go wherever I want to go, silly girl," she replied and tossed the magazine back on the unkempt shelf. "And it looks like the magic is in the process of creating chaos."

"My judgment must have been wrong to give you that flower."

I can hear the regret in her voice, and I couldn't blame her, though. I'm probably the worst person to be granted a wish.

"What is going on?"

"Use the human's addicting device, and find the blue application with a figure of an odd fat bird."

Talking about a media platform, she shifted her eyes on my phone.

"I hear from people around that you are called 'trending', and they are in need of your 'say' with the ongoing issue."

"What?"

Immediately, I picked my phone up and opened Twiitteer. And my breath was caught by a fart.

A stolen picture of me and the famous and wealthy Eric Marsh kissing on the balcony was posted online, frankly, ten hours ago.

"I still don't understand the state of your kind's madness. It's scarier than my world's madness," the old lady uttered and checked her nails-- CHECKED HER NAILS?!

"You're acting like you're my age," I commented, and the old lady rolled her eyes.

"It's because I am really not an old lady, silly girl." She snapped her fingers and poof! She's unrecognizable. "This is what I really look like."

White long straight hair reaches her waist, pale skin, and reddish lips. Her ears are pointy, and her eyes... They are still blue and gray.

"Wow, you're a bomb," I commented, looking at her from head to toe.

"In my world, I am addressed as Serena. A witch," she introduced herself.

And I, on my part, feel like I turned to ice.

"A witch?" I repeated. "Are you a... good witch or a bad witch?"

"Did I turn you into a pig?"

"I think that the pigs will be insulted if I became one of them," I murmured. "No."

"Then I'm a good witch," she answered and peeped outside the window.

A lot of people are still outside and waiting for me to open the door for them.

As if!

"I gotta get out of here. I still have work to do."

Serena looked at me with her judging eyes from head to toe and frowned. "You worry about that when you haven't given yourself a proper look and smell."

Sniffed myself secretly, I smelled nothing wrong.

"You will notice anything different because you're already immune to your body odor." She pointed her pointy white nails inside my bathroom. "Get inside the magical room and bathe yourself with milk."

"Bathe myself with what?" I gave her the most wrinkled face I could ever have. "Do you know how much a bottle of milk costs? I'd rather drink it than drown in it."

With an arm akimbo, I watched how she fumbled through my things.

"And if your world doesn't know that ants exist, then you should know how they pester one's home so fast. And they bite."

Looks like the witch doesn't have any idea about the evil red ants, I watched how her eyes widened from what I said.

"Then bathe with rose petals."

"I don't know where I'm going to get those, I don't even have a garden outside my house."

"Then what do you use to smell nicer?"

"Soap."

`

"Your smell is strange," Serena spoke as soon as I left the bathroom and hurriedly wore my office attire.

"Stop sniffing me."

Brushing my hair, I glanced at the clock and saw that the time I have left isn't enough to pass through those people in my yard and to drive through heavy traffic.

"Urgh! I'm gonna get late again."

Slipping the heels on, I picked my shoulder bag from the bedside.

"Need a hand?" Serena asked.

Before I could answer, I felt cold air surrounding me for a second. And the next thing I know, my hair is dry and tied in a decent bun. I look a lot more presentable than I do every day.

"You should know how to make yourself look better."

"Wow!"

My nails are painted red, and my face seemed to be slapped in makeup. Just wow.

"You're getting late, I believe."

With a blink of an eye, I'm standing in the lobby of the company I'm working at.

"You've got no time to waste," Serena told me, as she stood in front of me. "You have to find his scar and heal him. That's the only way to break the curse," she added.

"But how am I supposed to do that?"

"Open up your heart, and let him in," She answered. "You have less than a hundred days left in your time, and if you fail..."

"What if I fail?"

"You will face a delicate consequence a human can never survive."

"I've always been the kind of person who doesn't meet anyone's expectations. How am I supposed to face this thing I got myself into?" Honestly stated.

"You hope to never face the hardship your mother suffered through. Failure of magic aims at what you're most afraid to happen."

My heart fell. "That's not possible."

"In my world, everything does."