Chapter 1 - Matilda's ✩ Potions

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Were you evil?

​​You asked yourself this question countless times during the past week. Logically, you knew that forcing someone to love you was an immoral act, but there was no room for logic and rationality when it came to love. Not yours, anyway. No longer able to tolerate your unrequited love, you decided to throw caution to the wind and order a love potion from a stranger who claimed to be a witch.

You squinted at the rotting wooden sign hanging on her door. In messily scrawled English, it read:

[Matilda's Potions]

[The place to go when ya need a different kind of help.]

[P.S. NO REFUNDS]

Well then. Seeing how that "NO REFUNDS" bit was larger than anything else on the sign, maybe you should reconsider and go home. Lovesick or not, you had no good reason to trust a magic shop that was located in the basement of a department store.

You gnawed on your bottom lip in nervous contemplation. Even if every sign pointed you away from making this decision, you just couldn't turn back now. You took an hour-long train ride just to get here. Besides, how wrong could this possibly go? Matilda's shop didn't have a lot of online reviews—probably because she was an English speaker in a foreign country—but the ones she did have were mostly good. It seemed that few knew of her little shop and among those were even fewer who believed in her abilities. You were just going to have to take this shot, you thought, pushing the heavy metal door open. Inside was a lone woman standing over a large, boiling pot. She wore a pair of worn out denim jeans and a gray hoodie with numerous stains, and though she didn't see you come in, she tensed up when the bell attached to her door chimed.

"HEY!" Her gravelly voice rang throughout the small room, causing you to jump slightly. "Didn't I tell ya losers to fuck off unless ya had a search warrant?" she spat out. When she received no response, she turned around to see you standing there with your mouth open. You weren't sure what surprised you more; the thick Brooklyn accent, her outfit, or the words that just came out of her mouth. Everything about this woman screamed 'escaped convict' rather than 'magical witch.'

"Uhhhh..." She gaped at you for a painfully awkward moment. "Hi? Are you lost?" she asked you slowly.

"Nah, I'm here to order something. You're Matilda, right? Is now a bad time?" you asked, literally having one foot out the door already.

A sigh of relief left her. "Oh, nice, ya speak English. Yeah, come on in. Welcome to Matilda's ✩ Potions! Sorry 'bout that, I thought ya were, err...some annoying friends of mine. Got any ID on ya?" she asked with a friendly tone, which sounded forced considering how she was staring at you warily. Clearly, she wasn't excited about a teenager entering her shop. You walked closer before passing her your ID to prove you were of legal age to enter her shop. "Adults only" was one of her mandatory rules, which was a red flag, yet one that made at the same time. It's not like young kids should come waltzing in, you thought.

"(Name)...Eighteen, are ya?" She made a face at your ID before clicking her tongue. "Barely legal, huh. Ah, whatever, as long as you can pay, I really don't give a shit. Anyway, whatcha lookin' for, kid?"

"Uh..." you trailed off, feeling somewhat ashamed about what you planned to ask for. Verbalizing what you needed was far more embarrassing than you anticipated it'd be. "A love potion. I need something that'll make the guy I love return my feelings."

To your surprise, there was no judgmental look from her—only a concerned one. "Ya sure about that? There's a thousand fictional stories out there about the dangers of love potions for a reason. It's not the kind of thing ya oughtta' fuck around with," she warned, leaning against her oversized black pot with her arms crossed. Your eyes briefly darted behind her and you noticed it was actually a cauldron with suspicious purple liquid filled to the brim. Swallowing down your questions about her credibility, you decided to make your case instead.

"Believe me, I am well aware, but I just...No matter what, I can't stop thinking about him. I've liked this guy for years now and I can't take it anymore. If you don't have a love potion, do you at least have something that can erase my feelings for him? I don't want to love someone who'll never want me back," you explained, feeling awkward about admitting this information aloud to a stranger. Her face clearly showed she couldn't care less, but still...

She shook her head. "Magic ain't that advanced yet—or at least mine ain't. I'm guessing you want the potion anyway?" she asked, not looking the least bit shocked when you nodded. You were going to go insane if you kept obsessing over the fact that Ren wasn't yours. This potion wasn't just for love, it was also for the sake of your mental health, you lamely reasoned to yourself. You've made so many excuses to justify buying a love potion already, so what was one more?

The woman simply stared at you for a moment, trying to figure out from your appearance if you were rich enough to afford an attorney in the future. She wasn't sure why she bothered warning her customers if they never listened to her. "Fine, I can brew something, but it ain't all that safe if I'm being honest. Also, ya hafta' get me one of the boy's hairs."

"What?" you questioned a tad too loudly, earning an annoyed sounding meow from the fluffy white cat crouched in the corner of the room. "I didn't hear about needing his hair—the review on your website just said I needed cash! Besides, I never talk to him; I just admire him from afar, so I can't just steal his hair..."

Matilda simply shrugged at your predicament. "Welp, I guess that means no potion, which is for the best. Love potions never seem to work out the way the user wants 'em to," she admitted, wearing a slight grimace. Something usually went wrong with her batch of love potions—she just wasn't sure what.

Regardless, you were dead set on getting the potion that you saved money for. You just had to plan well, that was all.

You uttered out a quick goodbye to the strange woman before rushing out of her little shop to plan out your heist for some hair.

Matilda exhaled slowly after hearing her door close. Yes, it was bad business to let customers leave without buying things, but it was even worse to have dumb customers come back with lawyers after receiving 'undesirable results' due to her magic items. She assumed that would be the last time she saw you, but as usual, she couldn't be more wrong.

~~~~~~~

"When is he getting a haircut? Maybe I could just steal a hair then," you muttered before slumping onto your desk. Instead of doing homework, you opted to spend the last three hours brainstorming ideas to steal a single hair from Ren. Perhaps this being so difficult to pull off was a sign that you shouldn't be doing this...Oh, who were you kidding—you didn't need a sign to not use a love potion; that part was just common sense.

You sighed defeatedly and wondered why you were so desperate. Everything about using a love potion was wrong, but when it came to Ren, you found your morals meaning less and less each passing day. What mattered now was just having him for yourself even though you didn't think you deserved him. It wasn't like you were unpopular or undesirable, it was just that he was leagues above you. Everyone loved him and why wouldn't they? He was overwhelmingly kind and talented, and so very far out of your reach. Seven years of obsessing over this guy was almost maddening. Why couldn't he just look at you instead for once?

This is why you needed that potion.

You sat up straight and picked up your pen, feeling your resolve flare back to life. If he couldn't see you, you would make him see you. You were coming up with a plan to steal his hair no matter how stupid it was.

That night, you came up with a plan and you were commencing with it the next morning.


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10/31/20 [A/N]: I was saving this story for next year, but I couldn't resist uploading on Halloween! This is kind of a "pilot" chapter. If people like it, I'll continue the story, but otherwise it'll be on the back burner. Please let me know what you think ^_^

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