A/N: Hello, all. Time for another Anti-Gaz story. This is one that I've been looking forward to writing for a few years now, ever since Azuranaito (or CallieSizemore601 as she called herself then) sent me a prompt for a story she wanted to see written. That prompt was only the basic outline of the first couple of scenes, but I really loved the concept presented, and after bouncing ideas off of Eduard Kassel, came up with something to follow those scenes, creating this story. But with other stories taking priority (primarily New Adventures) it's only now that I've finally gotten around to writing it.
But enough of my rambling, let's get to the story. Read on!
Disclaimer: As always, all characters and concepts canon to Invader Zim belong to Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon. All I own in this story is a single OC (and even then, I fully share credit with Azuranaito).
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Misery Loves Company
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It was a dark night. Not stormy, though, as the cliche might suggest. In fact, the sky was perfectly clear, allowing all the light of the stars and a full moon shine down on the city below. So, it was only a normally dark night that had settled on the region, including the City Cemetery, which is where this story begins.
As already stated, it was a dark night. This made the beam of lights from a couple of flashlights that were playing across the cemetery seem that much brighter. One of these flashlights was being held by Dib Membrane, its light dancing around wildly as he ran from place to place, setting up the components of a mystical array, which was spread out across a small square of field which lay in-between the rows of graves. The other flashlight beam was, by contrast, completely steady, due to the fact that the person holding it was keeping it tucked under her arm while standing still, leaning casually against the short fence separating the pathway from the actual graves as she ignored Dib, focused instead on playing the Game Slave in her hands.
"Not that I care, but what are you doing again?" Gaz asked, not looking up from her game.
"There's been reports of this cemetery having a higher number of ghost sightings than it should based on the national average," Dib replied, as he drew a line of salt around the exterior of the array, "There's obviously a poltergeist stirring up the local spirits. Or possibly a demon. In either case, something's agitating the dead, and this array should be able to call forth and bind whatever it is."
"Right. And why am I here?" Gaz questioned.
"I'm going to need a second person present in order to guarantee that the spirit can be exorcised safely once I've caught it," Dib said as he lit some candles, "And I paid you 20 bucks to be here to do it, since no one else would be willing to come out here for anything. Now, please be quiet, I need to focus on this!"
Gaz frowned at essentially being told to shush, but not feeling like pausing her game to pummel him for such a minor offense, she settled for merely glaring at his back for a moment before returning to her game. Dib didn't notice, his own focus being on the array. After confirming that everything was set up the way he needed it to be, according to the spell book he'd been consulting, he set up a camera to record what was going to happen (for posterity on the Truth Shrieker forums, of course). Once that was done, he grabbed the book and started reciting the first of the spells he'd located for this situation.
As he chanted for several minutes, with nothing happening in response, Gaz rolled her eyes. She'd had a feeling this was a waste of her time, and from the look of things, she was right. As such, she was rapidly coming to the conclusion that this whole thing was a waste of her time, the 20 dollars in her pocket notwithstanding. Speaking of which, her stomach was starting to rumble, so she might as well go spend that fresh cash on some food.
Without bothering to alert Dib to her departure, Gaz switched her game off, pocketed it, and started walking away. Just after she disappeared from sight, the array suddenly lit up with an unearthly glow, and an ethereal demonic figure shimmered into existence in the air above it.
"It worked!" Dib exclaimed, a little too happy for the circumstances, "Quick, Gaz, when I start spraying it with holy water… Gaz?"
Looking away from the array to start issuing these orders, Dib finally noticed that Gaz was no longer there, leaving him alone with a demon that was looking less than pleased with its having been summoned.
"…Ah, crap," Dib deadpanned, before screaming as the demon burst out of the array and descended on him with claws and fangs bared.
Meanwhile, Gaz was still walking down the path towards the cemetery's exit. She paused as she heard Dib's screams from behind, arching an eyebrow. However, this only lasted a moment, before she shrugged off the surprise and kept walking. Whatever was happening back there, she didn't particularly care — this whole thing had been Dib's own stupid idea, so if it had blown up in his face, that was his own fault. And if he died, hey, at least he wouldn't be around to annoy her anymore.
With that cheerful (in her opinion) thought in mind, Gaz continued on her way. She turned to follow the path around a mausoleum, only to come to another stop. This time, it was because she was no longer alone, as there was a woman further down the path, standing in front of a tombstone. She was tall, wearing a slightly old fashioned-looking black dress, with her greying blonde hair done up in a bun underneath a small black hat, which had a veil falling from its front to cover her face. She was reaching up under that veil periodically to dab at her eyes with a wadded up tissue; between that and the shuddering of her shoulders, she was clearly silently crying.
Gaz didn't care, of course. She was more concerned with the fact that, due to how narrow the pathway was, the woman was blocking most of it. To get past her, Gaz would have to squeeze past through the remaining space between the woman and the fence running along the opposite side of the path. Or, she'd have to double back and find a different path to the cemetery exit. Either way, it'd be an inconvenience for her.
And Gaz hated being inconvenienced.
Growling in annoyance, Gaz decided to take the easiest approach and marched forward. Reaching the woman, she didn't even announce herself, instead grabbing the woman's waist and shoving her aside. As the woman stumbled forward and almost fell on top of the grave she'd been crying over, Gaz didn't even spare her a second glance, instead walking on along the now open path.
"Excuse me, little girl!" the woman snapped as she got back to her feet, glaring after Gaz, "What you just did would be incredibly rude under normal circumstances, shoving someone out of your way instead of asking them to move, but can't you see I'm mourning my husband?"
"Don't care," Gaz replied curtly, not even bothering to look back or stop walking. Then she froze, eyes bugging in surprise, as the woman quickly walked up and grabbed her by the shoulder.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you, you inconsiderate little brat," the woman said, voice calm yet carrying an undertone of fury, "I don't know who taught you that you can just brush aside your elders like this, but in my day children who act like you are right now would get put over someone's knee until they couldn't walk right. Now, I expect an apology, and you're not leaving until-OOF!"
The woman's rant was cut off as Gaz suddenly grabbed her by the arm she'd placed on the girl's shoulder, and used it to swing the woman through the air, landing with a hard thud on her back on the ground. As the woman lay there, motionless from surprise and pain, Gaz glared down at her, then slowly brought her foot down to press hard against the woman's throat.
"Listen carefully, lady," she said as the woman gagged and gasped for breath, "I don't know who you are, and like I said, I don't care what your deal is. But no one talks to me like they're in charge of me, and they sure as hell don't touch me. You were in my way, so I moved you, end of story. I don't ask for things, I just get them, and if people don't like the way I do it, that's too bad — I don't have time to listen to your whining, and there's nothing you can do about it, anyway. Now, I'm already bored of this place, so I'm leaving, which is lucky for you, since it means I'm not going to waste time on teaching you any more lessons. But if I ever see you again, you'd better stay out of my way and keep your mouth shut, or else. Got it?"
The woman gurgled out a response. Assuming it was an affirmation, Gaz removed her foot. Watching the woman gasp for breath for a moment, Gaz huffed, then walked off, once again heading for home. As she did, she was already starting to forget what had just happened — it was hardly the first time she'd have to put someone in their place for daring to think they could reprimand her for doing whatever she wanted, and it probably wouldn't be the last. So, she figured she probably wouldn't even remember this particular encounter before the week was over.
However, she was very much wrong about that, something she would have realized if she'd bothered to look back at the woman as she left. Then she would have seen the woman rise up into the air, clothes and hair rippling in an otherwise unfelt wind, and eyes glowing red.
"Little brat," the woman hissed, "You will pay for this…"
One Week Later
It was well into the night as Gaz exited Bloaty's Pizza Hog. She'd come for dinner several hours earlier, and stuck around to dominate the arcade after she was done eating, losing track of the time in her focus on her playing. Not that it mattered — as it wasn't Family Night, her father wouldn't be home to reprimand her for being out so late, and Dib would never dare to do so.
Not that Dib was home to bug her about her habits, at the moment. He was still in the hospital, recovering from the thrashing that demon spirit had given him back in the cemetery. Which meant that she had the house all to herself, with no one to annoy her, hog the TV, or take her food. She was totally on her own and loving it. Hell, she was so happy about it she could practically hear music around her…
"Wait a minute," Gaz muttered, stopping and cocking her head to the side. There actually was music playing, and somewhere close by. Not that that was entirely unusual in its own right, as this was a residential area. Someone was probably just playing music in their apartment and had their window open, letting the sound carry outside. Nothing odd about that.
But at the same time, there was something about the music that was just… off. There were no lyrics, just a tune, one that was somehow haunting and cheerful all at once. The rhythm of it was like a heartbeat, and it seemed to penetrate right through her ears to echo inside her brain.
"Gah, what's wrong with me?" Gaz said, shaking her head to try and clear it, "Who cares about some stupid song? I'm going home."
Annoyed at the strange feelings that the music had suddenly caused to swell in her, Gaz brushed it aside and started walking again. Or at least, she tried to — after she'd only taken a few steps, the music seemed to swell, deafening her to any other sounds. And more than that, it slammed right into the depths of her mind, and seemed to trigger something deep in her subconscious. She tried to shrug it off, but it was hopeless. After only a few moments, all her conscious thoughts were swept away by the flood of primal need brought about by the music, replacing it all with a single, all-consuming drive.
She needed to find the source of that music. That was all that mattered.
Eyes wide, dilated and slightly glazed over, a heavily-breathing Gaz swept her gaze over her surroundings, trying to find the source of the music. When that failed, she started walking in the direction she thought it was coming from, walking so quickly that she stumbled and nearly fell several times. But that barely registered with her, so utterly focused as she was on finding the music.
Finally, after several minutes of frantic searching, Gaz found herself outside an alley running between two buildings. Pausing, she listened intently, and the part of her currently pulling the strings, the part fixated on finding the music, felt overwhelming joy as it determined that it sounded like it was coming from somewhere in the shadows filling the darkened alley, hidden from sight.
Normally, Gaz would find this all highly suspicious and wouldn't even think of entering that alley unprepared. But she was on autopilot, driven by an obsession so strong she didn't even really comprehend where she was or what she was doing, so she didn't hesitate, marching right into the alley. Soon, she was in the middle of the alley, barely able to see either end of it through the darkness even if she had been bothering to look for anything other than the source of the music… which suddenly cut off.
Gaz froze, as if a switch had been flicked. She blinked slowly, the obsession which had been driving her for the last several minutes giving way to confusion as she tried to process what had just been happening to her and figure out how she'd ended up where she was.
THUD!
And then something smacked into the back of her head, hard enough to instantly knock her out before her body even hit the ground. As such, she was unable to witness as the woman she'd encountered in the cemetery a week earlier emerged from the shadows, carrying a flute almost as long as she was tall. The woman took a moment to inspect the flute, making sure it hadn't been damaged by hitting Gaz's head.
"Good for making siren calls and knocking out cruel little brats. Best buy of my life," the woman said with a laugh. However, the mirth faded quickly from her face as she scowled down at the unconscious girl at her feet, "Now then, time to put you in your place, little girl…"
The shadows stretched and darkened, consuming Gaz and the woman. This last only a moment, but when the lighting returned to normal, both of them had vanished without a trace.
A Few Hours Later
Gaz groaned as she slowly regained consciousness, head pounding. Confusion filled her muggy thoughts, as she tried to piece together an understanding of why and how she was in pain. As she did that, she tried to reach up and rub her sore head to wade off the pain, only to find that something was holding her arms down. And that realization was enough to fully snap her back into awareness.
Eyes snapping open, Gaz immediately looked down at herself to see what was restraining her. She was mildly surprised to see that, instead of rope or duct tape or chains as she'd expected, bands of glowing purple energy were wrapped around her limbs and torso, pinning her to the small table she was lying on so tightly that she couldn't do much more than twitch and squirm a little. Only her head was untouched, though that didn't do her much good, all things considered.
"Oh good, you're awake," a voice suddenly spoke up, catching Gaz's attention. She turned to face where it was coming from, also taking in her surroundings while she did so. The table she was tied to was in a small room, lit only by a single tall lamp, which was standing next to the only other piece of furniture, a high-backed wooden chair. And sitting in that chair was an older-looking woman in a black dress.
It took a moment for recognition to hit, and then Gaz was scowling at the woman.
"I know you, you're that old bag from the cemetery," she said, causing the old woman to frown.
"Yes, and you're the nasty brat who attacked and insulted me," the woman spat back, before composing herself, "But, no reason for me to be as impolite as you. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mrs. Hecate Williams, and I-"
"Why do you think I care anymore now than I did before?" Gaz asked dryly, only for her eyes to widen as another band of energy to suddenly appear and wrap around her head, covering her mouth, effectively gagging her.
"Hush. It's rude to interrupt your elders," Hecate said, "Not that I suppose that matters to you, Miss Membrane. Oh yes, I know who you are — I've done my research on you since our last little encounter. But, like I said, there's no reason for me to be impolite, so I should explain. As I was saying, my name is Mrs. Hecate Williams. And as you might have gathered from how I'm restraining you, I'm a witch. Not a particularly powerful one, I admit, but more than skilled enough to deal with someone like you."
Hecate got up from her chair and walked over to a curtain Gaz hadn't noticed at her first glance and pulled it aside, glancing out a window at something Gaz couldn't see from the position and angle she was stuck at.
"You know, my first instinct after what you did to me back at the cemetery was to do something horrible to you," Hecate continued, not looking at Gaz, "Like turn you into a rat, or inflict you with some awful, painful illness. But, unlike you, I don't always listen to my worst instincts and lash out at everyone who angers me. And you did anger me, acting so dreadful to me in front of my dead husband's grave, as I mourned the loss of my only living family… but, I digress."
Hecate turned away from the window and started pacing slowly, arms folded behind her back, still not looking at Gaz as she continued to speak.
"As I was saying, I repressed my initial instinct and forced myself to calm down, and not act rashly. After all, I didn't know you — you could have been grieving yourself and acting out of the same kind of anger I was feeling. So I decided to research you, just to be sure what happened wasn't a simple misunderstanding," Hecate said, before pausing and finally turning to look at Gaz, shooting her a mild glare, "You can surely imagine my disgust when I learned that not only was that bout of anger your normal attitude, but it was mild by your standards. By all accounts, you put people in the hospital for angering you over the pettiest of things, or for simply getting in your way by accident, the way I did. And all the while, you act as if the whole world should revolve around you."
Hecate now walked over and leaned down to glare at Gaz directly in the face.
"You are a horrid, selfish, vicious excuse for a human being, child," the witch said, "And it's time for someone to deal with you, before you grow into an even larger monster. But, unlike you, I'm not going to simply lash out with brute force. No, we're going to play a game. You like games, don't you? Well, this isn't one of your violent little video games, this is a bit more… interactive."
Hecate leaned back and walked away, coming to a stop next to what appeared to be the room's only door, before turning to face Gaz once more.
"You're in my home. My spells have turned its interior into a maze, and filled it with boobytraps. Non-lethal ones, for the most part, but they'll still be less than pleasant for you should you trigger them," the witch explained, "Now then, if you can find the exit without succumbing to all of my tricks, you'll be free to go — in a somewhat humiliated state by that point, no doubt, but without worry of further action by me. But fall for everything I send your way, and… well, the world won't have to worry about Gaz Membrane anymore. I can assure you of that. Questions?"
That last comment was sarcastic and accompanied by a dry grin, as Gaz was still gagged, and only able to make muffled sounds that were probably insults and threats.
"Good, I'm glad we understand each other," Hecate said, just as sarcastically, "So, let's begin, shall we?"
With that, Hecate suddenly vanished in a cloud of black smoke. Moments later, the bands holding down and gagging Gaz disappeared, allowing her to finally sit up. Rubbing at her face and limbs to get rid of the tingling feeling left by the bands, she glared at where Hecate had been standing.
"Bitch. When I get out of here, I'm going to turn her inside out," she hissed, jumping off the table. Walking over the window, Gaz pulled aside the curtains and took a look outside in order to get her bearings. The first thing she saw was that the sun was up, which meant she must have been knocked out for the whole night. Since no one would be home to notice that, she quickly processed it as unimportant and moved on to actually check out her surroundings.
From what she could see, she was somewhere in the area where the city proper shifted into the surrounding suburbs, judging by the fact that there were tall buildings across the street whereas there were smaller houses surrounding the one she was in. Speaking of which, judging from what she could see from that viewpoint, she was in an old-fashioned, wood-paneled, three-floor house, the height suggesting she was on the third floor. She was also apparently at the front side of the house, overlooking the porch outside the front door, and a cobblestone path which led to the gate set into the wrought-iron fence running around the property, enclosing a fairly well-kept lawn.
"Pst, what kind of pathetic witch lives in a dump like this? Where's the gothic mansion and all the demonic imagery?" Gaz snorted in disdain, crossing her arms, "Whatever, who cares? I'm just gonna find the exit and get the hell out of here. Hmm, maybe I should just break this window and climb out of here, just bypass all her stupid traps… no, I'm not giving that hag the satisfaction of thinking I'm afraid of her. I'll beat her at her own game."
Course of action determined, Gaz turned on her heel and stomped over to the door, yanking it open. When nothing happened, indicating there were apparently no traps present, Gaz snorted and walked out of the room. Looking both ways revealed she was in a narrow hallway, empty except for the series of doors running along both sides. Picking one at random, Gaz walked over and shoved it open, walking through without hesitation, only to stop in surprise.
She was now standing in a midsize kitchen area, which was not in itself surprising. No, what was surprising was the window over the sink, which gave what was clearly a ground-level view of the area surrounding the house, despite having just moments ago been three stories up. The sudden transition was rather jarring, but after a moment Gaz managed to shrug it off.
"Huh, guess this is what she meant by making her house a maze," she muttered, "Probably made it so every door leads to the opposite side of the building from where it's supposed to. That's almost clever."
Giving the kitchen a more inquisitive look beyond what she could see from the doorway, Gaz smirked as she saw another door on the other side of the room, one that clearly led outside.
"But not that clever. Idiot led me right to the exit," she said, "I should thank her for making this so easy when I come back to burn this place down."
Gaz's smirk stayed firmly in place as she walked over to the exterior door, only to slide off her face as she tried to open it. No matter how much she twisted the knob or how hard she pulled, it stayed firmly shut.
"Oh, come on! This thing isn't even locked!" she snapped, ripping the lock switch right out of its socket, to no result. As focused on this as she was, she failed to hear the click of the nearby oven switching on, or its door slowly sliding open. What she did hear was the whoosh of air as the interior of the oven suddenly burst into flames.
"What the- AAAHHH!" Gaz said as she turned to look towards the sound, trailing off into a scream as the flames came bursting out in a raging inferno. She jumped to the side, away from the door, right before the flames slammed into it. Hitting the floor hard, she didn't take even a moment to catch her breath, instead scuttling on her hands and knees across the floor back towards the door she'd entered through. She didn't make it, however, as another column of flame shot through the air, mere inches in front of her face.
Yelling wordlessly in a mixture of surprise, panic, and just a little bit of sudden pain, Gaz stumble-ran away from the flames, unwittingly also heading away from the door. But in her blind panic — and almost literally blinded by the rapidly spreading flames and smoke — she didn't notice or care about that. Her only focus was an almost animalistic need to escape.
After spending a few frantic seconds of running around, trying to desperately avoid the roaring flames, Gaz stumbled into a corner of the kitchen, and to her surprise saw that there was another door there, one she'd probably overlooked due to seeing the exterior door first. Too panicked to be annoyed at the fact that she was heading further back inside the house, Gaz practically bull-rushed the door, slamming it open and stumbling through it.
As the door slammed shut again behind her, blocking out the sound and heat of the inferno she'd just escaped from, Gaz collapsed onto her back, waiting for her heartbeat and breathing to return to normal. As they did, she became fully aware of the sensation in her face, and realized it didn't feel like she'd just suffered massive burns, but instead felt more like a bad sunburn.
"Great. What now?" she muttered, trying to recapture her self-control. Getting to her feet, she looked around and saw that she was now in a small bathroom. She was standing between a bathtub and a sink, beyond which was a toilet and another door. Walking over to the sink, Gaz checked out her reflection in the mirror set into the wall above it, trying to see what kind of damage the fire had done. What she saw took her by surprise.
"I got a tan?" she asked incredulously. Indeed, rather than having been burned or disfigured by the heat of the flames, her face looked she had just spent a long day out in the sun. Which, admittedly, was still a massive change when compared to her usual pale complexion.
"This is just stupid," Gaz muttered, "A boobytrap that turns the whole room into a furnace, and all it did was mess with my look a little? Pst, that's pathetic — even Zim could do better than that."
Now more annoyed than anything else, Gaz reached for the sink's faucet handles, intent on splashing some water on her face to try and deal with the irritating sunburn itch she was still feeling. However, the moment she turned the handles to switch the water on, they suddenly lit up with purple light, forming more bands like the ones which had restrained her earlier. And before she could blink, they wrapped around her wrists, effectively chaining her in place.
"What the hell?! Let go!" she yelled, trying to pull her arms free, to no avail. Then she paused, as the mirror in front of her suddenly swung open, revealing a medicine cabinet. Several items — scissors, combs, several vials of what appeared to be shampoos and other hair care products — came floating out, surrounded by the same purple glow. Gaz didn't get a good look at them, because seconds later another band of energy shot out from the sink, wrapping around her neck like a noose.
Letting out a choked gag, Gaz wasn't able to resist as the magical lariat dragged her forward and dunked her head under the running water. While she spluttered and tried to breathe through the water while still struggling to break free, she was almost entirely oblivious to the styling tools and products approaching her soaked hair. She registered the feelings of her locks being tugged and curled and cut, and various liquids being poured over her scalp.
A few minutes later, which felt considerably longer under the circumstances, it finally stopped. The magical restraints disappeared as suddenly as they'd appeared, allowing Gaz to stumble away from the sink. Coughing and sputtering out a lungful of water, she swept her damp bangs out of her eyes so she could get a look at what had been done to her. And when she saw her reflection, she started sputtering again, this time in outrage.
Her hair was no longer styled to look like monstrous jaws closing over her head. Instead, it was done up in rather old-fashioned braids. And worse, it had all been dyed blonde, in a particularly bright, almost eye-searing shade of the color. Combined with her new tan, she looked like some kind of Barbie doll, completely clashing with her dark clothes and, in her view, utterly ruining her look.
Snarling in outrage, Gaz grabbed at her hair, knowing she couldn't do anything about the color at the moment, but at least trying to at least undo the braids. It was hopeless, however, as the knots in the hair simply refused to be undone. Several minutes of frantic tugging and pulling did nothing but leave her with a sore scalp.
"I am going to kill her for this," Gaz growled, "Then I'm going to bring her back to life just so I can kill her again!"
Giving up on her hair as a lost cause (at least until she could get home and fix it), Gaz stomped over to the other door. Actually hesitating this time, having learned her lesson regarding possible traps, she quickly stepped aside as soon as the door opened. When nothing happened, she peered inside, greeted by what seemed to be a long, narrow hallway, surrounded by racks of clothing on both sides.
"A walk-in closet? What's this going to do, smother me in her stupid old dresses?" Gaz snorted, entering the large wardrobe. Despite her bravado, though, she still kept a wary eye on her surroundings, trying to spot the next trap she just knew was waiting for her… and thus wasn't watching the floor, thereby missing it as a rune lit up in a spot where she'd just stepped, lines of energy spreading out across the floor from it.
Gaz was halfway through the closet when she finally spotted the lines of energy as they reached and started to creep up the walls. She froze for a moment, and then bolted towards the exit, not wanting to stick around to see what was happening. She got within feet of the door, when the energy lines reached the ceiling and reconnected in a central spot, lighting up another rune. As soon as that happened, the floor, ceiling, and walls were all lit up entirely by the same purple glow. And with a whoosh of air, Gaz suddenly found herself pulled off her feet, left floating in midair.
"Now what?" she demanded. Her question was immediately answered, as clothes started flying off their racks and through the air around her. She was soon surrounded by a virtual tornado of clothing, much of which smacked into her, covering her body like a cloth cocoon. She gave several muffled cries as she struggled futilely against the clothes, feeling them slide all over her body.
And then she was flying through the air, slamming through the door, and finally smashing into a wall. As she slid to the floor, vision spinning, she barely registered the fact that she was in another hallway like the one she'd started in (or possibly the same one; it was hard to tell). And when her vision did clear up, that wasn't what caught her attention. What did was the newest changes that had been rendered to her.
"What the fuck is this?!" she screamed. Her shock was understandable, as somehow the clothes she had been wearing had been changed. Gone was her black dress, grey stockings, and skull necklace. In their place was a bright pink blouse with a yellow smiley face on the chest, an equally pink skirt with red hearts spread around it, white knee socks, and pink ballet slippers. It was, by far, the most girly outfit Gaz had ever seen in her life.
"Get it off, get it off, get it off!" she screamed, grabbing at the pink clothes and trying to tear them off; in her mind, being naked would be less humiliating than being dressed up like this. But to her rage and dismay, the cloth wouldn't tear, leaving her stuck wearing the horrible outfit.
"I'm not just going to kill her," Gaz growled, eyes starting to twitch violently, "I'm going to turn her inside out! I'll strangle her with her own intestines! I'll make her worst nightmares look like daydreams!"
Raging and ranting about all the horrible things she was going to do to Hecate once she got her hands on her, Gaz stomped down the hallway, more determined than ever to get free and take her revenge.
Some Time Later
The foyer of the house was rather quaint. It was a small room enclosed on the porch, with a couple of rocking chairs, small tables, and plant pots hanging from the ceiling. There was a solid oak door leading into the house's living room, and a screen door flanked by windows which led out into the yard. The peaceful quiet filling this scene was suddenly broken, as the interior door was forced open, revealing Gaz.
To say that she'd managed to avoid being further humiliated by more of Hecate's traps would be a blatant lie. She'd actually hit a series of them, and while their effects weren't as blatant as the first few, they were still obvious — ribbons the same color as her new clothes now adorned her braided hair, blush had been applied to her now rosy cheeks, and pink nail polish and a dash of gold glitter adorned her fingernails. By this point, she didn't look anything remotely like herself, aside from the rage burning in her eyes.
"Finally," she practically hissed, as she saw the yard before her. Almost ripping the screen door off its hinges as from the force of opening it, Gaz started all but running towards the gate in the fence bordering the yard. While she wasn't looking forward to walking home looking like this, the sooner she did so the sooner she could find a way to restore her appearance to normal. And then she'd come back here to inflict every horrible act of vengeance she could think of on that witch for humiliating her like this.
Proving that she hadn't learned a thing through this whole ordeal, Gaz let herself be distracted by her thoughts of escape and revenge, and stopped paying close attention to what was happening around her. She therefore failed to notice as one of the cobblestones she walked over lit up with another rune. Nor as a nearby lawn sprinkler lit up with the same tell-tale magic glow.
She did notice when that sprinkler then practically exploded, a large stream of water shooting out of it and right at her. Seeing it coming out of the corner of her eye, she spun toward it on instinct, and ended up getting a face full of the water, much of it going into her partially-open mouth and being reflexively swallowed.
Gaz stepped back a few feet as the stream died down, coughing and gagging, spitting out what little of the odd-tasting water was still in her mouth.
"What was the point of that?!" she shouted towards the house, "Just for that, I'm gonna… I'm gonna…"
Gaz trailed off as a wave of lightheadedness hit her, seemingly out of nowhere. She stumbled the last few steps towards the gate, grabbing ahold of it to steady herself.
"What the hell…?" she muttered, vision swimming and head growing increasingly fuzzy, "Was that water drugged? Urgh, doesn't matter, I'm not gonna let it beat me. I'm strong, I'm unbeatable, I'm… I'm…"
At that moment, the lightheadedness and fuzziness hit a crescendo, blocking out all conscious thought. This blackout lasted only a moment, and when it was over, her head cleared with it. Gaz let go of the gate and stood up straight, rubbing her head as she looked around.
"…where am I?" she muttered, eyes wide and slightly glazed over, "W-who am I? What-"
"Sweetie, is something wrong?" a voice called from behind Gaz, who turned around to face it. Hecate was standing over her, a wide smile on her face and an odd gleam in her eye.
"Who… wha?" Gaz muttered, eyes still glazed.
"Oh, dearie me, are you having memory problems again, baby?" Hecate asked, pulling Gaz into a hug, "There, there. It's okay, Mommy's here."
"M-mommy?" Gaz echoed, her glazed eyes gaining the purple glow of Hecate's magic for moment, before suddenly clearing totally. Noticing this, Hecate's smile took on a slightly more sinister slant.
"There, is everything better now?" she asked, patting Gaz lightly on the head. In response, Gaz gave a lighthearted giggle, something that under normal circumstances she would have horrified by.
"Yes, Mommy. Sorry, I forgot what you wanted me to do," she said, voice more high-pitched than normal.
"That's okay, honeybun, it's not your fault. Just take this list to the store and buy everything on it, okay?" Hecate said, handing Gaz a written note and a roll of money.
"Okay, Mommy. Bye!" Gaz said, before turning and skipping down the sidewalk. Hecate watched her go, grin growing even wider as she watched the girl walk right past a certain large-headed boy heading the other way, who didn't even look at her twice, instead focusing on hobbling down the street on his crutches.
"Excellent. Between the look and personality change, even her own brother doesn't recognize her. Just as I hoped," she thought smugly, glancing down at the sprinkler that had added the final touches to her plan — Water of Lethe to wipe Gaz's memories, and a potion of her own design to create new ones at her prompting. Combined, they insured that the last vestige of Gaz Membrane was wiped out, leaving a blank slate for her to mold as she saw fit.
A part of Hecate — a very small part — felt a brief moment of regret at what she'd done, but she quashed it. She'd removed from the world a horrible child, destined to become a worse adult, and replaced her with a sweet little angel. Besides, it was really Gaz's own fault. Hecate had been quite clear that she'd boobytrapped the house, yet Gaz had blundered about like a bull in a china shop, triggering them all in her anger-fueled desire to spite Hecate by getting out as quickly as possible. Admittedly, Hecate had been counting on that, but it wasn't like she'd stacked the deck — if Gaz had been more cautious, she'd still be her horrid little self, with nothing worse to show for it other than a change in hairstyle or wardrobe, and maybe a little humiliation. Instead, she'd doomed herself to be turned into her own antithesis.
"And on top of everything else, I finally get the daughter I always wanted," Hecate thought, wistfully, thinking of all the years she and her late husband had spent trying to conceive a child and failed, even with the aid of magic. Now, she had the one she'd always dreamed of.
True, people would be looking for Gaz. Children of celebrities don't just disappear without a second thought, after all. But thanks to her changes, they'd never find her, and in time they'd forget all about her, beyond being a curious unsolved mystery. Meanwhile, her new daughter would be raised to become a lovely woman who would strive to make the world a better place.
Content with her actions, Hecate sighed happily and turned to walk back into her house, already casting the magic needed to shut off her trap spells and undo the maze she'd twisted the interior into. And once that was done, she'd need to get to work fixing up a room for her new daughter, and creating retroactive evidence of her existence. It'd be a lot of work, but it'd be worth it, just like all the work to get to this point had been.
She'd been alone and miserable. But now, she finally had the companionship she'd craved. As the saying went, "misery loves company", and now she had hers.
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The End
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A/N: Well, as usual, the ending sucks. Feels totally crammed in and meandering, but I couldn't think of anything better. Hope that didn't ruin the experience of the rest of the story. Speaking of which, hope the story as a whole was still enjoyable.
Happy Halloween, folks. Please review!