The murky red reflected Melanie’s dim expression as she hovered over the bowl. Her eyes lacked the shimmer of their emerald, the bags beneath them hung heavier than usual. It was shallow, what remained of the potion, much like the time she had left. A drop of wine fell from the tip of her hair, serving as a reminder of what she still had to do.

Everything had been set into place in preparation for her absence. In the boiler room, she had arranged Bradz’s laptop to shine its light from the corner, providing needed illumination. The center of the room was devoted to the altar, where the bowl of the potion had been set atop a stack of books, staggered in a staircase fashion. Underneath the humble warmth of candles was where Adrian had been placed, her unconscious body conjuring more pain into Melanie’s body than the curse was.

Melanie held her head, a stake seemingly driving through her from there. Her body shivered, and she warmed herself by rubbing up her shoulders. The room was spreading apart around her as her mind began to spin, but her eyes couldn’t leave the potion, not until she could transcend that final obstacle.

Her mouth remained open, her tongue slowly in search of words to form. What am I supposed to say? she wondered. Without the chant written out for me, I can’t finish making the cure. Would the same chant as usual be good enough? No… I can’t risk that. It’s too late to experiment. Not now, not when it’s her life on the line…

She stared deep into the shallow fluid. Who are you? Melanie asked the reflection. A failure… That’s all you are. A creepy girl, a freak. Ugly… A monster, a demon… And when this goes wrong, I’ll be left with what I deserve. I’ll be the insect I deserve to be. Adrian will be gone… I’ll have no more of my collection… There will be no more potions or curses… I’ll have just my pathetic life, scurrying around on the floor until I’m crushed…

Melanie winced. As hard as she attacked herself, her insults struck her very little. She shrugged each of them off, not with confidence but with indifference. She didn’t care at all about what was to happen to her. None of this, after all, was about herself. Her eyes swayed to Adrian, pulled there like a habit. She observed her, watching the frail body rest. It was for her, Melanie told herself. The sacrifice that she was making was for Adrian, to give her the cure that she needed.

At her center, Melanie clasped her hands together, catching and holding tight to the passion that inspired her. Her mouth moved, not in a chant, but as a prayer.

“I don’t understand this magic… and I never will. Maybe, this magic wasn’t meant for humans. I’ll never know why or how this spellbook was made. But that doesn’t change that I’ve used it… I’ve succumbed to it. I’ve spread its power over people. I’ve learned to make it stronger. That magic would never have existed… without Adrian. It was only for her that I was tempted to cast that curse on people. My love for her… that’s what brought this magic to life. I wanted to reshape the world, and to bring us two together; doing the impossible, to accomplish the impossible. I was afraid of what Adrian would think of me, so I took her… I thought that magic could overcome my cowardice, but all it did was disguise it. In the end, Adrian has only come to resent me. The one person I’ve devoted everything to, my obsession…

“She’s all I know. She’s my entire world. Even beyond this mortal life, Adrian will always be everything to me, even if I’m nothing but a monster to her. So I’ll sacrifice what I have, so that I can fulfill just one promise to her. I told her I would cure her… I would do anything to cure her. These past several weeks, since unearthing that book, I’ve heard people beg. I’ve heard humans cry and plea to a cruel god, asking for mercy. They always begged me for their own lives, but I’m begging… I’m begging for someone else’s. I’m begging that Adrian be given… a chance… I’m begging that Adrian be returned to normal, for her to decide what her own fate is…! I’ll cast myself away if that’s all it takes, I’ll throw my life away and endure any sort of hell…! But, Adrian…! She’s everything…! Magic never should have done this to her, and so I’ll do anything to have magic correct it! A cure for her -- that’s all I need! One final spell to return her to the life she wants…!”

Melanie opened her eyes slowly, unaware of the two tears that stained each cheek. The world that greeted her was alien and new, huge and vast. She had felt it through her entire speech, the universe spreading out wider and further apart as her body shrank in size. A cold horror clung to her shoulders as she sat there, perched atop the highest book and gazing into the pool-sized bowl of wine. There had been no shimmer of magic or twinkle of mysticism; no signs at all that the potion had mutated.

Yet, still unbothered by this change of perspective, Melanie only continued to loom over the fluid. Her reflection was equally smaller now, dwindled away as much as she had. Bitter words bubbled to her mind, more attacks against herself, but a sigh dusted those thoughts away. Mentally and physically, she was numb, with only enough energy in her to begin the trek down the staircase of books.

Returning to the solid, cold floor had only made Melanie dizzier. The exhaustion she felt from the transformation only added to the injuries she took from her wrestle with Paige. All at once, she was beginning to feel how weak she was. It scared her, running shivers down her spine as she quietly approached Adrian, there at the bottom where she had left her.

“Adrian… Y-You look beautiful…” Melanie awed the sight, only cursed by how her vision was fading. She took to her knees, overlooking Adrian’s still body. She gently touched her shoulders, a finger moving one strand of brown hair away. The smile growing on Melanie’s face immediately faded when she looked to Adrian’s leg, twisted and hurt. Melanie blamed herself, knowing it had been her responsibility to keep Adrian sheltered.

She wouldn’t be able to do that now, not when they were the same size. A final flicker of a smile graced Melanie’s expression as she slumped down beside Adrian. Keeping her eyes locked on her obsession, she cherished this moment. It was as though neither of them were tiny, as if none of the spellbook’s powers had been unleashed. They were normal, almost.

“Together…” Melanie closed her eyes, finding her arm already curled underneath her head. Without realizing it, one blink had sentenced her to a silent slumber.

The atmosphere was thick. It was hot and thick, and difficult to breathe. Adrian twitched, her eyes starting to open up to the red world that surrounded her. She jolted awake, realizing she was actually submerged. She gasped for air, then covered her mouth, only then understanding that it wasn’t in the way of her breathing. She was floating, abandoned in a sea that reeked of alcohol.

There was a beat, a rhythm. Just like her, it was submerged, a soundwave that fought against the water successfully. Every beat could be heard, mustering small waves that washed over her. Following the bass was always an itching, rustling sound. By noise alone, Adrian felt how familiar this place was. The mysteries hiding it only made it more clear that she had returned to this dream, or nightmare, and from there, she knew what to look out for -- what to fear.

Ahead of her, she saw it again. The giant heart of hairs. It pulsated with life, just like the organ would do, generating the sound Adrian continued to endure. Veins and arteries equally as hairy branched into the heart’s vaults, but where they lead off to from there was unknown. A darkness encircled the flood of what had to be wine, limiting the space to only the heart, and Adrian.

“Adrian… Adrian…” A ghostly voice was reaching her, mixed into the beating of the heart. Unmistakably, the voice, too, came from that horrific sight in front of her, repeating her name incessantly. What did it want? Who was this? Adrian wondered these questions, but she felt that whatever answer awaited her could only be reached one way.

She approached the heart in a drift, not needing to swim or walk, but simply pulled there. As she did, her name became more clearly stated. “Adrian…” She moved closer and closer still, awing at how massive this heart actually was. From afar, it hadn’t seemed so intimidating, but now its rhythm was epic and loud, its throbbing could be felt from how close she was nearing.

But Adrian felt a need to get closer still. A hesitant arm was placed upon the organ’s wall, meeting the uncomfortable texture of soaked hair. Her fingers clenched, grabbing at a chunk of hair and revealing just how loose every strand was. When she pulled her hand away, so did she unlodge a chunk of hair that draped over her wrist if it didn’t float off into the nothingness. Adrian shook her hand clean, but the discomfort wasn’t enough to dissuade her. “Adrian…”

“What?!” Adrian shouted, her anger spontaneously peaked. “What do you want?! H-How do you know me, a-and who--?!”

“Adrian… Adrian…” The voice wasn’t that unfamiliar, but it was filtered and strange. Adrian had a theory, but it only riled her confusion more, for only then did she ask herself, Where the hell am I? The library, Paige, and the cure -- these facts circled her thoughts, but not a detail came to mind to explain what this was supposed to be.

There was no where else to go, so Adrian braced herself, then pushed into the wall of hair. She winced past the tangles that grabbed at her face, ripping her legs through knots and ignoring the itching that immersed her. The voice was muffled now, but she was getting closer, something she could sense even in the blackness of the heart’s inside.

The hair finally gave way, and Adrian found herself in a new space, occupied almost entirely by a gigantic form -- a person, standing huge and tall, afloat in the same fluid. Adrian hovered a distance away, lingering at a level equal to their chest, which was as exposed as the rest of the feminine body. Only when she looked up to the giant’s face did she recognize them as Scarlet, who returned the look of awe with a bitter glare.

“S-Scarlet…?!” Adrian asked, clinging to the hope that she could even be heard.

Scarlet rose her head up even higher, her gaze weighing heavy on the tiny figure. “That’s not my name,” she groaned hauntingly. A hand was raised, just beneath Adrian. She swam up, trying to avoid the grasp, but the lunge was far too quick to dodge. Caught in Scarlet’s fist, she felt her body dragged upwards at an alarming speed, halting suddenly just in front of the huge face.

But it was no longer Scarlet looking down at Adrian, nor was she the one holding her. When Adrian’s vision caught up with her new position, she instead saw Kimberly. She was trapped in her hand now, no more pleasant than her previous captor.

“Kimberly…! K-Kim--” Adrian was choked out of speaking as Kimberly’s grip tightened.

“This is what it’s come to,” Kimberly explained, her voice distorted and low, unlike her usual motherly charm. “We must do this.”

“No! W-What do you even m-mean?!” Adrian fought through the stranglehold on her body to speak up, but Kimberly -- or whatever this was -- refused to listen. She was lifted slightly higher, then thrown down in a rage. Painfully, she twirled through the red water, its thick resistance punishing her for moving so quickly against her own will.

Tossed and turned by the whipping motions, Adrian struggled to recover quickly. When she did, the giantess was upside-down, and had once again shifted forms. Kimberly had been replaced with Nicky, a once friendly face that now looked vile and destructive. Disbelieving this, Adrian corrected her sense of gravity, but it did nothing to relieve her of the betrayal hanging high above.

Nicky’s expression was terrifyingly indifferent as she lifted her right foot up into the air. If a shadow could be cast in such a dim world, it would have surrounded where Adrian floated. “This is good,” Nicky bellowed. “We need to get rid of you.”

“P-Please… W-What’s this about…?!” Adrian panicked. She tried to move, but now, at the worst of times, that ability was gone. She could only squirm and thrash as the wine around her held her in place. Tears began pouring from her eyes, “W-Why?! I-I didn’t ask for this…! Why do you hate me?! Why, why, why?!?”

“Hate…” Another voice, and so crisp and normal. It stung, and Adrian wished that it would have returned to such a distorted tone like the others. She wished that the voice wasn’t so ordinary, so graceful, so much like Erin’s.

“Hate... “ so that voice repeated once more, beckoning Adrian to marvel at what was above her. Erin stood in Nicky’s place, towering above Adrian much taller than any of the others had. She was massive without contrast, and her one foot, suspended where it had been, was as wide as the moon -- and it was growing, approaching.

“No…!! Erin!!” Adrian cried, her tears becoming small clouds of bubbles as they mixed into the wine. She trembled, feeling the gravity of that gigantic foot coming closer, and she begged the question once more in a scream, “Why…?!”

The sky kept crashing, slow and unrelentless on its path of devastation. Above that apocalypse, Erin gave an honest answer to Adrian, with words that grappled Adrian’s core, “I DON’T WANT TO DIE.”

Adrian screamed into the void that rushed towards her from above. Her voice rattled nothing, it affected nothing. The world had turned against her. The cruel world, absent of love and mercy and pity, had condemned her to be swallowed into the lowest pit it could create. The world wished to abandon her, to tribute her and rid the world of her corrupting presence. Adrian screamed into the void as it collapsed over her in an earth-shattering collision, screaming into the sole of Erin’s foot as it cast its judgement over her.

But she wasn’t crushed. The foot fell onto her and absorbed her, revealing that it was not flesh, but hair. An endless bush of hair that she couldn’t swim away from, her resistance only entangling her limbs tighter, punishing her for trying to escape. This was her fate; she shouted in refusal, but her plea reached no one. It was muffled into the hair, preventing even an echo of herself to respond back. It was worse than being killed instantly like she had imagined, worse in how pathetic and trapped she felt, permanently bound to a mess of fuzz that slowly, slowly strangled her.

“Someone…! I-I’m… I’m stuck…!” Adrian whined -- she was too entangled now to move her arms or legs. Her breathing was hectic and unpatterned, inhaling loose debris of hair and gagging as a result. Through her coughing, she continued to cry, “Help me… Help…! I-I can’t be alone…! I can’t stand it…! Please, anyone…!”

“Adrian…” Her eyes shot open. Someone was calling to her. Again. “Adrian… Adrian…” Her name continued to be said, and each time, Adrian looked to a new direction. She couldn’t pinpoint the source, but eerily, she was gradually comprehending who this voice was.

“Hello?!” Adrian yelled out, finding the energy to move, only for the forest of hair to grapple her again. She groaned, “Hello?! Someone! Please…!”

But the voice was growing distant, or perhaps just weaker. Adrian spasmed, dreading that she’d be abandoned once again. Regardless of how the ropes of hair burned at her skin in how tightly they held her, she pushed onward. She clawed through the barriers, tearing down chunks of hair in waves, and eventually scratching off those that kept her bound. Savagely, she broke free, and she climbed through the hair, following the quiet trail of her name.

Adrian’s fist pierced through a veil of hair and into an empty space. Was this another vault of the heart she was in? Somehow, it resonated with her, that this was the center of everything. Desperate to find resolve in this nightmare, she dug even faster, prying her way out into the chamber -- and to awe at its secret.

“Melanie…?” Adrian named the figure that she saw correctly, despite how the woman was clothed in tight, restrictive hairs. She was suspended in this chamber by a web of dark threads which covered her almost entirely. Only her head and neck remain exposed, hanging so low that her own black hair meshed into what wrapped around her.

Adrian crawled to her, only hesitating when she was within range to reach her. She heard from her that same voice, the same name, “Adrian…” It had become so weak now, a mutter that left her lips out of habit. “Adrian… Adrian…”

Her eyes opened with a dim life. The soul that she had been crying out for was standing before her, no longer the size of a doll, but as equals. Adrian felt the chill of this moment, to once again meet Melanie without the conditions of the curse. Melanie was a human, fragile and flawed; no longer the goddess that controlled seemingly everything. Indeed, she controlled nothing now. She was trapped in the same twisted reality that Adrian was swimming through.

Adrian cautiously stood up, inching even closer to her. She peered underneath the hair that masked Melanie’s face, but when that failed to reveal an expression, she found herself brushing the hair aside. With a tender touch, her hands then hugged Melanie by the cheeks, raising her head gently so that she could look deep into her weary eyes.

“Adrian…?” A small touch of life appeared in Melanie’s droning tone. She blinked, her vision putting together the picture of Adrian before her. “It’s you… Adrian…”

“M-Melanie--” Adrian’s voice cracked, unsure of how to speak to her. So many thoughts raced and feuded against one another, to come to a decision, but nothing was logical here. She shivered, finding more things to ask, “W-Where are we…? What’s happened?! P-Paige was a-asking for the book, and Scarlet and the others, th-they--” She stopped, feeling a life drain into her palms. Melanie was falling unattentive, dwindling in consciousness. Adrian abandoned those questions, and she tightened her hold on Melanie’s head. “Melanie! What… What do we do…? How do we escape…?”

A sluggish blink spoke on Melanie’s behalf, and its answer was despairing. There wasn’t an escape from this that she knew of. Feeling the dismay in Adrian’s fingers, Melanie forced the energy to speak, “It’s… only just us…”

Adrian trembled. The gravity of their loneliness settled in. The red glow that had seeped into this deep chamber of the heart had began to fade, succumbing to shadows. The humidity thinned and in its place was an unsettling, empty cold.

She adjusted Melanie’s head as it began to topple down again. She kept a firm look into Melanie’s eyes, even as they blinked at a dying pace. In those green orbs, she saw callouses. This crippling cold of loneliness wasn’t foreign to her -- it was native. This depressing, claustrophobic world was the world of Melanie, manifested as a nightmarish sinkhole made of the darkness she herself had cultivated, and despaired to. The web of hair hadn’t entangled her, she had used it as a defense, to seal herself away in a sanctuary of torment. This wasn’t the spellbook’s doing. It was years and years, a lifetime even, of Melanie shrinking deeper into her own distrust to the outside. Illuminating this cavernous realm had been only one hope, a singular person that had inspired Melanie to embrace the real world. Adrian was the lone glimmer in Melanie’s emerald eyes, but that light was disappearing. The space between her and Adrian was expanding into a fog of nothing.

“Melanie… You’ve been here for so long, haven’t you…?”

“… Yes…”

“There’s a world waiting for you to live in, Melanie. You can be free, and you can be warm without this.”

“No… There’s… so much hate. The world… it hates, it hates so much--”

“Your love can overcome it. There’s love deep inside of you, Melanie. I can feel it… Beneath my hands, and under all this hair… I can feel a powerful love.”

“It’s horrible… A disgusting love… A tainted emotion… that I’ve reserved for you… It’s a poison. You’ve been infected. It’s ruined you.”

“You’re wrong, Melanie. Love doesn’t do that. It enables, it empowers -- it reshapes the world around you. That’s the ability you have. That we have, together.”

“You’ll hate it… You’ll hate what’s inside of me…! Just like everyone else… Just like myself…!”

“I’ve seen that light inside of you. You and I… We’ll unlock our love to the world. We’ll reshape it.”

Adrian grabbed at a wrap of hair that circled just under her neck, then pulled. She ripped it apart, threads snapping in bursts until finally a handful of hair had been torn off. There was still another layer, perhaps another beneath that, but in some small cracks, weaving through the tangles, was a glow. A yellow shine of something buried deep within Melanie’s cocoon.

She tore at the hair again, and then again. Both hands stripped away layers of hair, her fingers finding the weakest parts and starting from there. Gradually, she was deteriorating the tomb encasing Melanie. Everytime a new layer was unveiled, she would rip into it again and again, regardless of how much opposed her.

Melanie had closed her eyes to Adrian’s actions. She wanted her to cease and finally give in, like she herself had so long ago. But when she opened them again, a shining light surprised her. Emanating from her center, where Adrian had the most success in digging away at the hair, were rays of light that pierced through the weakening barriers. Melanie inhaled like it was the first breath she had taken in years.

“Adrian…! This isn’t supposed to happen…! I’ve given up on love, I’ve given up on this disgusting world…! I’m not ready… I’m not prepared to be exposed again…!”

“I know you aren’t,” Adrian said, “but it’s time for us to move forward. We have to.” And, she smiled at Melanie. “I’ll have you. You’ll have me. Together.”

With that word, Adrian clawed off a wide spread of the hair that held Melanie. Her torso had been freed, but where there was meant to be skin, there was only a body made of light. A strong light, that beamed outward with warmth and clarity. It struck at the creeping darkness like a saber, warding it away. Melanie awed at what was inside of her, and so did Adrian, who was able to peer within and see the destiny they could make for themselves.

Adrian placed her hand against the body, but it phased into Melanie when she did. It was a portal, an escape. Was it? Adrian believed it to be, believing it when she looked to Melanie once more before pushing herself inside the infinite glow.

The floor was hard and the air was stagnant. Adrian flinched when she stretched her neck and felt these details, groggily trying to reposition herself away from such discomforts. She lifted her head, her vision was still unclear. She moved her leg-- “Ahhg! Shit!” she sparked, a blood-boiling pain jetting up her system. She hadn’t remembered that her leg had been shattered, becoming a painful weight that would have to be dragged. At the very least, that shock of pain had been an effective alarm, and all of Adrian’s senses had whipped back into place.

Yet it still took moments to adjust to her surroundings, to even grasp them. It was the massive boiler that clued her in as to where she had been taken, striking her as just vaguely familiar until she recalled having seen it before, when Erin was tied to it. This meant she was still in Anders Library, but what did that even mean? Flooding back to her were glimpses of the recent past -- being pinned and held hostage, Paige and Melanie squabbling over the spellbook, the collapse of the bookcase, and finally, Paige’s grasp. Blank pages after that left her confused and in need of more answers.

In front of her was a structure, a staircase made of books that lead to the rim of a bowl. It had been so neatly constructed that, in her daze, she hadn’t even comprehended what small items formed it. As she acknowledged the books and the bindings that faced her, she then saw a shadow laying on the floor, right in front of the first step.

Adrian approached in a crawl, unsure of who it could be. Hovering over the lump of a body, she gasped; it was Melanie, unconscious and, more importantly, no longer titanic in size. They were the same size, both no bigger than dolls. It was startling to accept at first, but very quickly did Adrian feel like she had expected this. She reached to touch Melanie, to test if she was awake, but nearing too close jolted her system. For her, it didn’t feel as though it had been so long since they had seen each other like this, at the same level and size.

Melanie wasn’t stirring, and Adrian wondered if that was even the right thing to do. Nothing around her was conclusive of how that fight between the two giantesses had ended. If Melanie was tiny, then did that imply Paige had won? But if Paige had won, why would she leave them together here? Scarlet and the others were nowhere to be seen. In the room, there was only her, Melanie, and the bowl.

It had to be answered, that burning question in Adrian’s heart. Toughing through the agony in her leg until it was fully ignored, Adrian climbed up each step of the makeshift staircase until she had reached its top. She crawled across the flat cover of the final novel until she could look into the crater-sized bowl. As she neared closer, she discovered just how little of the potion remained, even questioning if any still remained. Some did, a bath’s worth relative to the shrunken women, but a far cry from how much Melanie once wielded in the spray bottle.

Ultimately, it would be enough for Adrian, if she decided to bathe in the wine. It struck a chord within her, that this could be what Melanie designed. She looked down the staircase, back to where she had left Melanie. Pieces of this puzzle were coming together to form an eerie predicament. If what she was theorizing was indeed true, then Melanie had created a cure; she had bested and shrunk Paige, then sacrificed herself as the final victim needed to mutate the potion.

But there was the possibility that she was incorrect. In fact, that was the stronger of the two possibilities. After all, how could a cure be made when the dilemma they faced had never been solved? Melanie hadn’t obtained the necessary chant for finalizing the cure, a detail so crippling for Adrian that she had nearly killed herself upon learning it. If this wasn’t a cure, then it was just the potion, and Adrian had witnessed already what became of those who were targeted twice by the curse.

A void encapsulated Adrian in this decision. Outside the walls of this abandoned boiler room existed nothing. Reality had ceased, so it seemed, as she was left at the split of two uncertain fates. Melanie didn’t have the chant, so a cure couldn’t be possible, yet everything was arranged the way it were. Did Melanie remember the chant? Or did she guess? Did she even chant at all? Or was this a sinister ploy to trick her into shrinking herself? She remained there, paralyzed, at the lip of the bowl.

Adrian gazed at the remaining pool of the potion. Doubts attacked her from all sides, enflaming her anxieties. Every avenue seemed wrong, so she stared at the wine in thought. It sat so tranquil and still, as if time had frozen. She could sit there forever, she thought, just like yesterday, when her and Melanie gazed into that lake where they had abandoned Candi’s car.

That entire night played back in her mind. She remembered Melanie and everything she had said. She remembered Melanie explaining her obsessive personality, how her love for Adrian blossomed and became so vital to her, a part of her. She remembered everything Melanie had done for her, all the ordeals she faced, just to keep a destiny of themselves tied together. Melanie’s love had been impossible to comprehend, but it was refined and genuine. Melanie truly did see nothing in the world but her.

And now, Adrian saw nothing in the world, too. She crawled forward until she tumbled down the slope of the bowl. A cure would be a cure, and a curse would be a curse -- in the end, magic would be embraced.

An unflattering splash. Adrian rolled into the wine, attacked instantly by its scent. The deep inhale she had just taken was immediately shaken out of her as a series of shivers tickled her skin. Her heart drummed with uncertainty, but her brain was mute with a gray acceptance. She squirmed in the fluid, positioning her leg as to not be in so much pain, but before long, that would be the least of her physical concerns.

A sickness, one that was all too memorable, had smacked her. She groaned reflexively, reliving a ghastly sensation that she had only experienced once before. As though a stake were impaling her head and drilling to her chest, as though a fire was biting at her flesh. It was just like before, just like that fateful night. Adrian’s eyes flashed open, then tightly closed -- Dear god, no, she feared, I couldn’t be wrong… I couldn’t…

Whines turned into groveling. The sharp pains of her shattered leg mattered not to her anymore as she flung about in the potion, gripping at the slick sides of the bowl as best as she could. She wanted to stand, but it wouldn’t make a difference. She had decided, and she reminded herself of her own resolve. She reminded herself of Melanie’s devotion.

In Adrian’s chest, her heart thumped in heavy, slow beats. Between each pump was an absence of life, allowing a cold to fill her body before the next wave of blood refueled her, only to leave again. The heat grew hotter, her headache intensified.

Adrian opened one eye, hesitant to see how the world was changing. She first saw her hand, and she saw where it was, on the edge of the bowl.

She gasped, and quickly flipped to her other side. The bowl was filled with her, the puddle of a potion had since dwindled compared to her. There was no other description: she was growing.

No celebration could be enjoyed as lightning-like pains coursed through her system. She grew bigger and bigger, outgrowing the bowl and forced to flop out of it ungracefully. She wailed, suddenly hit by the pain of her leg, and her breathing only became more frantic and shrill. One last twist allowed her to be laid on her back, staring deep into the cobwebs at the ceiling. She forced herself to reel in her panting, putting a hand over her heart and biting her lip to better press forward through the struggle. She winced, clutching the cloth of her doll-designed shirt, wishing she could manipulate her crazed heart herself.

Finally, there was a sign of relief. The spasms slowed, then ceased. A long, winded exhale dismissed a fraction of her anxieties, but her head remained feeling light and imbalanced. She wanted to raise her head, but her body was slow to awaken. In truth, she was afraid of moving, afraid to engage with a world that had just earlier felt so imposing and huge, but now felt fragile and compact. Adrian could barely comprehend the sensation, much like how little she understood about any of this, but there was no question about one matter.

Melanie had made a cure.

The future was as bleak as the setting for the tiny women Melanie had left behind in the library. Huddled close together on an empty shelf, nothing could be said for certain of their fates. They had gambled on Paige, believing her when she promised to find a cure, to rescue them. All of them had been pawns, they had realized at their own pace, and worst of all, she had lost. While they were bound to the limits of the shelf, Paige was trapped under the minimal space of a single coffee mug, left alone on the floor where she had been vanquished.

Scarlet hadn’t left Kimberly’s side. Both sat quietly together in one corner of the bookcase, imagining what remained of their lives while Chloe tried to tend to Bradz’s wounds as best as she could. Melanie had left not a hint of what her plan was, effectively abandoning them. They would starve, most likely, if insanity didn’t puppet them into killing themselves or each other first. Only a miracle was going to save them, as far as they could see.

But the sound of the boiler room door opening piqued hope, as much as it did concern. Scarlet rose to her feet instantly, but Chloe was the first to peer around the wall in anticipation of the arrival. Small tremors helped described the gait; a hard footfall always followed by another being dragged the same distance, producing an uncomfortable rhythm that neared closer and closer.

Chloe fell backwards and scrambled back as a massive face came into view. She gasped, and the others awed in just as much amazement. They had expected Melanie, but they had never seen this giantess before, even as recognizable as she was.

Adrian’s eyes dazzled at the sight, finally having found where Melanie had stored her collection. Her mouth trembled to open, but it was Scarlet to be the first to speak; “Adrian! Adrian, y-you’re huge!”

“She’s normal,” Kimberly corrected in the midst of her marveling. “She’s… cured.”

Adrian smiled and chuckled, hesitant to speak. There was little more she knew to say after Kimberly’s remark. In some disbelief, she examined herself again, just to reassure herself that she had grown back to normal, if the shrunken women in front of her wasn’t evidence enough.

“Can we be cured?!” Chloe asked, bolting to the question. “I-If she can become normal, th-then a cure exists…! W-We can go back to normal!”

“There is a cure,” Adrian finally said, her voice quiet and reserved. “Somehow… it was made. Melanie found a way.”

Scarlet fell hard to her knees, washing her palms over her face again and again. It had to be a dream, she figured. After all this time, having been trapped in such a pathetic body and tortured, there was finally an escape. She could return to her life, perhaps forever scarred by the event, but anything was better than what she had experienced. Tears filled her eyes, and she feared that she would have a heart attack tragically before reclaiming her true size.

Scarlet laughed. “So she was being honest, huh!” she said. “She did make you a cure… Thank fucking god, we’re… we’re free! We’re free from that asshole! That freak! It’s… I-It’s over! It’s over! I can see my sister again, a-and the sorority, my--”

Adrian hummed, quietly intercepting Scarlet’s praising. Her smile persisted. “It’s not the end.”

The boiler room door creaked again, and a different rhythm of footsteps approached where Adrian stood.