Michelle nervously fingered the small glass vial as she clutched it in her hand. She kept looking back and forth from the container in her palm to the guy sitting on a park bench nearby, completely absorbed in whatever he was looking at on his phone. Nick. This might be her best chance to get his attention - and her last chance. If this didn't work, she didn't know what she would do.
She'd had a crush on Nick for months now. No, not a crush - that word didn't begin to cover it. She'd been obsessively thinking about him for so long, unable to keep the thought out of her mind, that she'd become convinced they were meant to be together. So why was it that he never seemed to notice? Every time they'd met, when she not-so-accidentally bumped into him on the street or just so happened to get lunch again at the cafe where he worked, he'd looked at her like any other random stranger and then moved on immediately.
Michelle had spent some long nights crying to herself over him, struggling to fall asleep, sometimes feeling too sick to eat. What was it about her that she needed to change? Was she just not attractive enough? She tried different types of makeup, new outfits, until her checking account was running low. None of them did anything to catch his eye. She wished, with all her heart, that she could just be the woman Nick wanted to be with on the outside. She was sure she already had it on the inside.
And then, unbelievably, some supernatural force must have heard her wish and decided to give her a chance. Because just this morning, she'd wandered into a strange little shop that she was sure hadn't been there yesterday. And its old, dusty shelves were chock-full of assorted amulets, orbs, goblets of colorful liquid, and other artifacts that gleamed strangely in the light. Operating on a hunch, she went up to the bearded old man at the counter and started to explain her troubles. He'd cautiously suggested the vial that she was now holding in her hand, promising that it held an incredible power. "Simply drink this," he said, "while gazing into the eyes of your object of affection - and your body will change, inside and out, to become their ideal partner."
It sounded completely crazy, but Michelle was at the end of her rope. She might be tying that rope around her neck soon if she couldn't be together with Nick. So, out of sheer desperation, she reached into her purse and forked over her last fifty-dollar bill. The shopkeeper had never actually mentioned a price, but he seemed satisfied with the payment. "But take heed," he said with great seriousness as she turned to walk out the door. "The changes to your body will be so powerful that none of my other magicks could possibly undo them. In other words, I'm afraid, whatever happens will be permanent."
Of course, that was the least of Michelle's worries. If this thing actually somehow worked - she still only halfway believed it, even after seeing the whole shop suddenly disappear the moment she stepped out and turned her back on it for a second - all it would do was turn her into a slightly more attractive version of herself. Why would she ever want to reverse that?
She stepped a little closer to Nick, sitting there on the bench. God, he was so hot. She just wanted to stare at him all day. And if this worked, maybe she would get that chance. She noticed that he was looking very intently at his phone screen, his face slightly flushed. She hated to interrupt him, disturbing that perfect scene - any scene that he was in, Michelle thought, was perfect. But the anticipation was killing her. She waved and said, "Hey, Nick!"
He glanced up, then quickly, instinctively, tilted his phone to an angle that guaranteed nobody could see the screen. He blushed as he pressed the power button and shoved the phone into his pocket. "Oh, uh, hi... Michelle, is it? I think we've run into each other a couple times recently."
Michelle was disappointed she couldn't catch a glimpse of whatever he was looking at. She suspected, based on his embarrassed reaction, that it was a picture of something close to his ideal woman. She could have gotten a preview of what was about to happen to her body. But she didn't dwell on it - whatever was perfect for him, she told herself, would be right for her. "Yeah," she said hungrily, "we have! Funny coincidence, right?"
Then, making sure she was fixing him with a dedicated stare, getting direct eye contact with him for the very first time, she raised her hand to her mouth and knocked the vial back. He looked back at her, obviously confused. But there would be plenty of time to explain afterward. The moment the bitter liquid touched her tongue, she could already feel something rearranging deep within her. It was working! She stifled an excited laugh. She was about to get the man of her dreams by becoming the woman of his dreams. Nothing could stop her from achieving her destiny now!
But what Michelle didn't know - what Nick had spent all the years since he hit puberty making sure no one would ever know - was that Nick's tastes were not exactly normal. In fact, he had some very strange, secret fetishes that rendered him completely uninterested in a normal human woman his own age, which was the real reason why he'd never paid any attention to Michelle. Yes, she was about to become a perfect living copy of what Nick had just been looking at on his phone - it was what turned him on more than anyone or anything he'd ever seen. Unfortunately for Michelle, that was...