In the upmost chamber of the soaring tower looking over Spiral Mountain, hands began to emerge from out the ancient green walls. The hands were just as green, withered, and olden. The outline of a body pushed forward through the stone, and in an instance stood there a dreadfully revolting form. A plump, green skinned, wrinkled body draped in a black cloak. The face was the most sickening, a long pointed nose and equally protruding, fat chin and bulging yellow eyes, framed around gristly black hair, and a pointed hat. She took one step forward, looked around and grinned.

"I'm free," she said softly, savoring the feeling of movement, of the joy of seeing her lair as she had left it. "I'M FREE!" she now cried. "My fool of a sister thought she could trap me, but now she's trapped and I am free! For many a year, I was imprisoned in that wall, and now Grunty shall have vengeance on all! Listen to me, these words you mark, now there is brightness, but soon the world will be dark!"

She moved forward, and laughed diabolically. But suddenly her knees gave out, and she collapsed to the floor. She screamed out in pain, her nose was bleeding.

"What…what's wrong with me…" She raised one wiry hand unto the windowsill, attempting to push herself up, but her strength gave out and collapsed on the floor again, gasping. "I feel so drained, oh what could I have excepted, a thousand years in limbo…"

She raised both hands onto the sill again, forcing herself to get up. But as soon as she had she regretted it. Her eyes lifted forward of the hard cold ground, and in the glass of the window she saw her own reflection, and saw not the young attractive face she once knew, but saw the monstrous form she had become.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed and punched her fist through the window, and now her knuckles were bleeding too. She went to the boiling cauldron in the center of the room, and observed her own reflection in its depths. "What once was beautiful has now turned grotesque, and my own reflection I detest! My beauty once legendary, and has turned wrinkled, old, and scary! How can this be, what causes my woe, how have I become ugly and weak so?"

"Is it not obvious?" answered the cauldron back.

"You know why this looks so bleak, well don't keep quiet, speak, speak!"

"A thousand years you were in stone, a thousand years I stood here alone. You expected to escape after that the terrible battle, and walk out in perfect health? You powers are drained for you lost them all, and only now are they coming back, which has allowed you to escape. Your body has aged, as it would had you been here on Earth."

She stared into her own reflection, unable to take it out of her sight. She had tears coming down her ugly eyes. "My powers gone, my beauty too; what am I supposed to do? A curse I place on my sister's name; let her rot in eternal pain. I am repugnant, repulsive, pathetic! I'M HIDEOUS! I'M HIDEOUS!"

She fell on the floor again, screaming in rage. "I will not allow this to continue! I must do something! I must be beautiful!"

"Vanity is the worst sin to commit," said the cauldron. "Your love of self leaves only hate for others. And hatred to others brings hatred back to you. With hatred comes vengeance. Pride will be your downfall. Also, that didn't rhyme."

"Perhaps I don't recall it Dingpot, perhaps I am not wise. But I don't remember asking your advice!"

She paced back and forth, trying to clear her mind and think, but she seemed to weak to even properly formulate thoughts. She then noticed the small portrait of herself, hanging in the side of the room.

"Why…why does the painting, drawn while I was still stunning, look as worn-out and unsightly as I do now?"

"Your mind must be weak, if you cannot even remember that all paintings and statues of you were enchanted to change as you changed."

"Of course, I knew I shouldn't have let that Dorian Gray decorate my lair," she stood again at the cauldron's edge, sounding desperate and pleading. "Please tell me Dingpot, please do tell me I am not as hideous as I think. Please."

"Are you hideous? Yes, of course. As hideous as you think though, the answer is no. Your narcissism compels you think that if you are the least bit attractive you are the most gorgeous person in the world; while at the same time if your looks are anywhere near sub par you'll believe yourself a monster. Though of course you have always been a monster despite what you look like."

"Thank you," she said as though being called a monster were a compliment. "I know I'm a monster, but I do not wish to look like one, nor do I want to be weak. I need to get my powers back, so I can conquer the world once more!"

She thought some more. "Dingpot!" she bellowed. "Show me, the youngest, the most beautiful, the most pure and loving soul on this planet. Someone sweet and innocent, with radiant crystal beauty."

"Well, it's lucky you ended that sentence with beauty, for the person you look for is named Tooty."

And as he said it, Tooty's young face appeared on the surface of the pot's water.

"Yes," said the witch Gruntilda smiling. "Perfect. This honey bear will suffice, and she happens to live here in my capital city."

"What do you have planned?" asked Dingpot suspiciously.

"Very simple really, I'm going to drain her of youth and beauty and implant it in myself. After I'm done, I will have returned to my true power and glory, and she will be the one weak, ugly, and old!"

"But she is a mortal, the process will surely kill her…"

"What's it to I if one life lost, to me it is just another body to toss! I am the destined ruler of the world, so watch out little girl!"

Her anger seemed to have brought back some strength, as she grabbed a nearby broomstick, kicked off and flew out the shattered window, cackling all the way.