Change

Chapter 5

"What do you mean a 'spell'?" Edgar asked Byron, who was fixing up poison.

"How many times do you want me to repeat it? It's a spell caused to two broken ones, and the spell swaps the personalities and such for the two." Byron said in a frustrated tone, "now leave me alone! I have work to do."

Colette and Edgar were currently at Byron's potion shop, trying to figure out how they changed mysteriously. It was a Saturday morning, so they didn't have any work. "Please, sir. We want to know how to get back to normal! Being edgy is getting... weird for me," Colette pleaded.

"No!" Byron fumed stubbornly. "You two are bothering me. Now get out, before I call the police!"

"Sir, I am begging you! Please, I'll do anything to get the information. My girlfriend and I are-." Edgar started.

"Anything?" Byron repeated.

"As long as it isn't dying, we'll do anything." Colette confirmed.

"Well, well. Follow me then." Byron motioned the two to follow him.

Byron opened a door, which led to a dark basement. It was horrifying. "If you want the information, go get me a bottle of liquid fire."

"Sir, is it safe down there-?" Edgar began.

 "Go."

Colette started going down the staircase, while Edgar stayed behind in fear. "What are you doing?" Byron asked. "Go with your girlfriend. Even she's braver than you!"

"Sir, you have to listen to details. I told you our personalities were swapped, which means now I'm as scared as her, and she's as brave as me."

"Ah, that makes sense. Girl, come comfort your boyfriend! He is very scared, at the moment." Byron instructed.

Colette came back up, then held Edgar's hand and squeezed. "Come on, Edgar. No need to be scared," Colette insisted.

"Easy for you to say- you have my personality." Edgar muttered.

"Does personality matter right now? Look, if you want your brave self back, we need to go down there."

Edgar gulped before answering, "fine."

They both slowly started going down. Each stair squeaked as they continued on, leaving a shiver down Edgar's spine. Suddenly, darkness swallowed them. "What happened? What's going on?!" Edgar yelped.

"I-I don't know! I think Byron shut the door," Colette quavered.

"I can't see anything! Colette, where are you-?"

"Edgar, I'm right here. I'm holding your hand, silly!" Colette squeezed Edgar's hand, and he felt a wave of relief wash over him.

"As long as you're with me, I think I'll be fine." 

"We'll go together, Edgar. I'm not letting go of your hand anytime soon." Colette promised.

While they were walking around in the darkness, Edgar's scarf managed to find a light switch. It flicked it on, and the room was filled with light. "Good job," Edgar complimented his scarf, who gave a thumbs up.

The room was small, but was filled with potion ingredients. "How do we find liquid fire?" Edgar questioned, and Colette shrugged in response.

"They're all alphabetically ordered, so let's try to find it in the 'L' section?" Colette suggested.

Edgar agreed, and the couple started searching. 

They looked through the L section, but managed to find nothing. They also looked through the F section, just in case, but it had the same results. "Where is it?" Colette pouted.

"You look cute when you're frustrated," Edgar smiled.

"Thanks, but now's not the time, Edgar."  

"Sorry," Edgar apologized.

"It's okay."

They kept searching.

Seconds past, then minutes. It felt like hours to Edgar, who was searching through the "elements" section. Then Colette suddenly burst, "I found a door, Edgar!"

Edgar turned over to where Colette was. There indeed was a hidden door, camouflaged to make it look like it was part of the wall. Colette opened the door, and motioned Edgar to follow. The room was dark; the only light source was in the middle. 

Liquid fire.

The ingredient was on a podium, and light was shining off of it. Colette whispered, "is liquid fire really rare or something? Byron even put it on a podium. Oh well, let's take it and get out of here."

"Yeah. Let's hurry, too," Edgar shuddered. "I don't like this place."

Colette reached for the podium, and she grabbed the container of liquid fire. Suddenly, the area around the podium got sticky...

Too sticky.

"Edgar," Colette tried to take her feet off the ground. "My feet are stuck!"

"What, how?" Edgar tried to make sense of the situation.

"My feet are stuck, help me!" Colette howled.

Then, they heard a noise coming from the ceiling. The roof, which was now covered in spikes, started to slowly lower. "Is it just me or are the spikes getting closer?!" Edgar screeched.

"It's not just you, it's not just you!" Colette panicked.

Edgar put his arms around Colette's waist, then tried to pull. Luckily, it worked, and the two ran out of the room just in time. "Is the old man trying to kill us?!" Edgar panted, breathing heavily.

"...I'm just relieved we were able to live." 

 "Now let's go give him the liquid fire," Edgar pointed at the staircase.

Colette and Edgar both went up, and Byron opened the door. "Good job, you two. I really appreciate it." He said politely.

"You almost killed us!" Edgar and Colette complained in unison.

"My, my. I was simply testing my security system, and you two were the test subjects." Byron cackled. "However, next time, I'll make the area stickier."

"Next time, I'm not going down there ever again. Now quit messing with us and give us the information!" Colette demanded.

"Yes, please," Edgar begged.

"...Oh, right. Alrighty then. Follow me- this information is not to be heard by others. We will go somewhere private, where no one can follow us."