Kat finished casting, but nothing happened. Dan started to laugh at her. “Good joke, Kat. You had me with it, but as nothing happened, I would say it was a ruse all along.” Kat frowned at him and replied: “Maybe I got something wrong or I have changed my mind about changing you. Who knows but me. Now get out of here.” Dan took his time leaving, but when he finally was out Kat smiled wide. Dan didn´t know what she had cast, so he wouldn´t suspect his next actions were her doing. She didn´t have much time to prepare her next actions through, so she quickly picked what she needed and left the house.
Dan moved to his own room, took his phone out and called his friends to come over. He didn´t realize that Kat only wanted more people involved for her plan, and what was better than her brothers annoying friends?
The first to arrive was Dan's best friend and their neighbor Aaron, followed by his classmates Phil and Fred who lived just down the street. Five minutes later came Ben and Oliver which lived around a couple of streets away. Lastly Colin and Mikey arrived, both good friends of Dan since kindergarten but living a bit farther away the Ben and Oliver. They all settled in Dan's room talking for now.
Meanwhile Kat returned just ten minutes after Colin and Mikey came by and got up to Dan's room. Seeing that all of his closer friends were already there, she started with her plan.
“Oh, you have invited your friends over, Dan? How nice of you.” She gave a short pause, but no one congratulated her to her birthday as they didn´t really like her. “Well, they can be useful for my entertainment when I´m finished with you.”
“Oh come on, another joke like you did before, Kat? I don´t think they believe you being a real witch.” Dan said, looking annoyed at her intruding his room.
“Good, little brother, now you gave me another reason for my plans, as that was a secret you shouldn´t have told them. Now they will need to vanish and I have just the right idea how they will do so, and with your help to top it.” She grinned evilly at the group before she started casting her first spell at them.
Before either could react Ben suddenly vanished, leaving only his clothes behind, which then collapsed on themselves. Kat continued her casting and one after another Fred, Aaron, Mikey, Oliver, Phil and Colin vanished like Ben did. A last spell hit Dan with no visible effect, but he noticed he couldn´t move his body anymore from the neck down. But he found his voice again.
“What have you done with my friends?” he asked her angry. Kat flicked her hand and with a single word the clothes left behind vanished too. “There they are, Dan. Only much smaller and nearer to their destiny.” As Dan looked to where Aaron had sat he saw his naked friend was sitting there dazed. The others looked similar to Aaron in their former sitting places, some muttering a bit but to quiet to hear anything. They were only a couple of centimeters big now.
Dan was speechless, so Kat put two transparent boxes on his desk. The first was filled with eighteen other naked people, the same size as his friends were now. The other seemed empty beside that the ground of it was covered black with something.
“You see, Dan, I have collected others in that box in the same state as your friends are. But when I´m finished you won´t be able to tell any of them apart. So let´s finish the preparations before I change you and explain.”
Kat easily caught his friends around the room, putting them in the box with the other shrunken ones. Only Aaron, which she took last, remained on the palm of her hand, and he was to terrified to do anything. She then cast another couple of spells and before their eyes Dan's room changed. His bed-frame turned to glass before expanding outwards, pushing other things away. The mattress sunk down into the glass container and dissolved into a sand like substance on its ground. His blanket liquefied into water and created a couple of ponds inside, while his pillows broke apart and turned into various stones all around the terrarium the bed had become. While most of Dan's furniture simply vanished after the terrarium was finished some turned into plants, moving into the sand before growing high, covering parts of his white walls. The only thing unchanged was his desk, which remained mostly to place things on it needed for the terrarium and his occupants. Dan's favorite books, which had laid on the desk dropped inside the terrariums ponds and turned into water lilies inside, finishing it.
“You want to turn them into animals?” Dan asked confused. He was angry at her for changing his room, but was more concerned for his friends at the moment.
“In a way, yes dear brother. But that place is yours alone and not theirs. Now look closely at your small friend here, Dan. What I do to him will happen to the others in the box as well.” Dan looked shocked when Kat cast yet another spell at Aaron still on her hand. Before his eyes Aaron's skin turned black as night while he dropped forwards on all fours. Then his arms and legs thinned alongside his hands and feet. Out of his sides grow another pair of legs while at the same time something mostly transparent grew out his back where his shoulders were. Dan realized what Kat was doing with his friend. He saw Aaron's face deform, his nose and ears shrinking away while his eyes started to get bigger. Then they split into many small facets, and where the shrunken Aaron had stood seconds ago was now a simple black house fly on Kat's palm.
“You changed him into a fly?” Dan asked shocked. “Yes, and not only him.” A quick look down showed Dan that while he was focused on Aaron's change the others had changed as well, so now in the box were twenty-four house flies. Kat tossed Aaron inside to the others and Dan noticed that he couldn´t tell any of them apart. He nearly started crying when he couldn´t figure out who of them were his friends. Kat didn´t gave him any explanation for now, only started a new spell directed at him.
Before long he had also shrunk into his clothes, but not as small as the others had become. With a flick of Kat's hand his collapsed clothes vanished, leaving him out in the open naked. Then Kat grabbed him and he noticed he was around the size of her hand now. She placed him at the center of the terrarium before smiling down at him. “Look at you Dan. So small and fragile now. I will finish your changes now and then explain the rules of this little game to you and the others.” And with that she started her final spell for now.
Before his eyes Dan's skin turned green with his chest and stomach being a bit lighter colored then the rest. Also his skin was getting a bit slimy, including the soles of his feet, which made him slip and fall backwards. Like a reflex he pressed his legs down before jumping , making a somersault to land on his feet again, bending his knees outwards and his hands on the ground in front of him. His fingers and toes started to get webbed while getting longer themselves and the nails vanished. His hair had already fallen off unnoticed by him, but when his eyes grew a bit he could see his bald, green had clearly.
Dan tried to ask Kat what she had planned, only for his cheeks to expand a bit and then of a “ribbit” when they shrunk back, his nose receding with it. Kat laughed at that noise while Dan realized that he was now a frog and couldn´t talk anymore. He panicked, giving a couple more croaks out.
After enjoying his panicked croaking for a minute, Kat decided to explain her rules. “Now Dan, stop being so loud or you won´t know what to do. The spells I have placed on you and the others will be broken if you fulfill a simple task. To change back you have to eat all the normal flies in the room. You see, here in the second box are fifty flies, so twice as much as the changed people. If no original flies are in the room anymore the spell will break, however you must also eat at least half of all flies. If the others chase the flies out the room you won´t change back until you eat half of them.
As to not make it a simple task for our changed flies, they can´t communicate with each other, and if any of them leave this room they will be stuck as flies, so no fleeing. Any fly that flies into the room counts to the normal flies, even if it is a changed one that has left the room and returned. You will know if you have eaten a changed fly when you swallow it as you can´t release them anymore. Should you try to starve yourself to safe them, you should know that your death will make the spell permanent for them also. Now I will release your pray Dan, have a nice meal.”
With that Kat opened both boxes and spilled the flies of both on the desk, mixing the occupants by that. Dan watched helplessly at them. How could he be save to eat any fly now? The though alone was disgusting, but he would do it to save them all.