Sweet Celia: Sweet Tooth (Commission)

Commissioned by randomguy93.

Chapter 2

Minutes later, Tom was outside following Celia to a nearby nature trail that circled a duck pond. Once they were in the relative privacy of that wild place, he started asking questions.

“You did this to me,” he said, walking next to her. “Didn’t you? It was the candy cane.”

Celia nodded with a proud smile. An autumn breeze rippled across the water, making Tom wish he had worn more than a T-shirt and gym shorts.

“Listen,” he said. “You have to undo this. You need to turn me back to normal.”

“Why?” she asked, her smile fading.

“I don’t want to be a teenager again,” he said. “I’ve got a life that I’ve worked hard to build for myself already.”

“But, you said we couldn’t be together because you were too old for me. I fixed that problem.”

Tom let out a big sigh, realizing that it would be a challenge to change her mind.

“Don’t you want me?” Celia asked.

The last thing he wanted to do was insult her, but he had to be clear about his feelings. “I think you are very pretty,” he said. “Maybe if we had grown up together, then we would have been dating by now.”

“That’s what everyone around us will think is true,” she said. “You see, the magic is tied to your soul and all the people that touch it. As your life changes, they change with you, developing new memories to fit your new body. As far as anyone else close to you knows, you have grown up with me.”

“You can’t just do this to me,” he said. “You can’t just rewrite my whole life to make me your boyfriend.”

“I promise you won’t regret it,” she said. “I’m very good at making men happy.”

Tom stopped walking, and Celia stopped a few steps further on to look back at him.

“I have a girlfriend,” he said.

“What?” she asked, outraged.

“We’ve been dating for years,” he said.

Celia squinted at him suspiciously. “I’ve never seen any women stopping by your parent’s house.”

He sighed, realizing that he would need to explain. “Okay,” he said. “We’re not together at the moment. She kicked me out, but we’ve been talking. I think I can patch things up with her.”

“So,” Celia said, relaxing. “That’s why you’re back living with your parents. Your girlfriend dumped you.”

“It’s not over with her.”

“Think about it,” she said, stepping close to him, putting her hands on his shoulders. “I’m the perfect rebound girl—sexy, young…” she leaned in and kissed him. “...and totally hot for you.”

Tom turned away, slipping out of her grip and walked away down the path.

“Are you serious?” Celia asked, following behind him. “You’re passing me up for someone that dumped you?”

Tom stopped and turned back to her. “You can keep me this age or turn me back to normal. Either way, we’re never going to be a couple. This little-girl crush you have on me is not going anywhere!” As soon as he said it, he knew he had gone too far.

Celia glared at him with building fury in her eyes, so strong was her expression that he thought her blue eyes had begun to glow, like a gas flame. “Fine!” she said. “If you won’t date me, then I’ll make sure you won’t be dating anyone.” She strode up to him, and he felt as though he had been stunned into immobility, unable even to look away from her lightning blue eyes. “Listen to me,” she said. “My voice is your mind, my words, your thoughts. Say it is true,” she said.

“Your voice is my mind,” he chanted. “Your words, my thoughts.”

“Good,” she said. “Now, here is your new truth, burned into the core of your being. You love my candy. You will eat whatever candy I give you. You might try to resist it but not for long. Eventually, you will be unable to stop yourself from eating it.”

Celia’s control was complete. Still, Tom’s overpowered mind recoiled in horror as he felt her words being etched into the deepest parts of his subconscious.

Then, the fire of her eyes faded away, and he felt himself released from her dominance. He started gasping for breath and panting, realizing that he had been holding his breath as she spoke.

“Now,” she said, as she rummaged around in her bag. “I have some new treats for you.” She pulled her hand out of her bag and, palm up, she opened her fingers, showing him three round peppermint candies, each one about the circumference of a quarter. She grabbed his hand with her other hand and placed the candies in his palm. “Eat those,” she said. Then, she backed away from him, a faint smile on her face.

The candy cane last night had stripped away 10 years from him. These were smaller, but Tom suspected that they might do the same. Not wanting to become any younger, he decided to throw them into the pond. He balled up the candies in his hand, pulled his arm back over his head, and then…

Nothing.

Tom felt unable to finish the throw. The final step was just impossible for him even to consider, knowing that it would destroy her lovely candies. He wanted them gone, still, so a wild solution entered his mind, Eat one! Make it disappear into your mouth.

So, he did.

Tom popped a peppermint into his mouth and moaned in ecstasy as the sweet minty flavor hit his tongue. It was the most delicious thing he could imagine tasting, simply magical.

“Good boy,” Celia said.

Realizing too late that he had done exactly what she had commanded, Tom wanted to spit the candy out of his mouth, but instead he just sucked harder on it, even munching it with his teeth to speed up eating it. His mind had gotten the idea of getting the candy out of his mouth, but it had simply chosen to eat it faster instead of spitting it out. Moments later, he swallowed it all, leaving just a minty taste behind in his mouth.

The cool flavor of it seemed to radiate out from his stomach, and then it spread through his chest and down past his hips and up through his head and finally out through all his limbs to his fingers and toes. Every inch of his body tingled with peppermint, and through the tingling, he felt himself begin to shrink.

It was a subtle sensation, but undeniable. His body was getting smaller as he stood there. His limbs contracted an inch or so. Some pounds of flesh melted away. Another inch compressed away in his spine. His clothes shifted slightly on his dwindling frame, his shoes getting roomier as his shirt hung more heavily from him and his shorts threatened to slip from his hips. His skin tingled oddly on his face and around his armpits and crotch, which he realized was body hair disappearing into his skin.

Then, the peppermint magic faded. The candy’s power was spent. He looked down at himself, seeing that he had lost so much mass overall. He was still a teenager, still not yet a boy, but boyhood seemed to be sneaking back in. He would need a mirror to be sure, but he thought that his face felt different now as well. How many years had he lost?

“Two years,” Celia said, answering his unspoken question. “Give or take a few months.”

He looked down at the two candies left in his palm and shuddered at the knowledge of what they would take from him when he ate them. He held his hand out to her and pleaded, “Take them from me. Don’t make me eat these, please.”

She shook her head and smiled. “See you soon, kid,” she said before turning her back on him and walking away down the path. He watched her go until she rounded a bush covered corner and was out of sight.