Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!!
First Impression: Well that's certainly quite the tale there. Things just slowly going from a little bad to very worse there for poor Vaughn who was just trying to deal with a slightly awkward situation that just blew up to quite enormous proportions there.
Anyway let's get right to it,
“You can’t be serious. There has to be room in there somewhere. If Ishmael just moved his legs, then I would be able to join you guys.” Vaughn said.
It was Christmas Eve in 1982. Vaughn, Ishmael, Nicola, and Requiem were going to the town’s annual Christmas party.
Nicola and Requiem sat at the front, Ishmael sat in the back, lying down as though it were his bed.
“Sorry, Vaughn. I’m too tired to move.” Ishmael said, a grin on his face.
“But-“
They drove off, laughing gaily, leaving Vaughn behind.
Well that's quite the place to start us off on there. Definitely immediately establishes exactly what happened to poor Vaughn and I'm sure that's going to tell us a lot about exactly what's going to end up happening to him as an effect of all of that here.
Vaughn walked in the woods, kicking up snow. Home was just around the corner. Maybe he’d have cookies, who knew?
But it wouldn’t be the same as going to the party. All he wanted was hot chocolate and Christmas lights with his friends.
Why did they leave him? Was he not cool enough? Did they hate him? Did-
Vaughn’s foot kicked something metallic.
He looked down to see what the object was.
Ooooh that's a nice little way to run into that. He's just trying to come to terms with things and is trying to make his way home when we bump into something that's perhaps a little strange from the looks of things here.
Upon looking, he saw that was a red ornament with the word: “Axira” painted on it with gold cursive.
Huh, that’s strange. Perhaps I can take it home. Maybe I can try to decode the meaning of the word. It’s something to do, after all. Vaughn thought.
He bent down to pick up the ornament, thinking that nothing much would happen when he touched it.
A burst of loud, bright light flashed and blew Vaughn away.
Well that certainly is quite the jump there. You certainly don't expect that when you're just picking up a piece of junk that's seemingly been randomly tossed out onto the street. Hopefully this doesn't end too horribly here.
Vaughn’s hand gripped something hard.
He sat up, taking in his surroundings.
It appeared that he was in a cave, except that it was incredibly small. Maybe it was a tunnel. But how would he get stuck in a tunnel?
Even weirder was his appearance. His hands were long and pale, the fingertips were clawed. His hair was long, too. He appeared to be wearing thin black clothes, too. His body felt gaunt, but he didn’t feel small.
What’s happened to me? Vaughn thought.
Well that's certainly gone and done quite the number on him alright. Its going to be quite interesting to see what choice he's going to make now as a result of this whole scenario.
“Ah! Here it is! My ornament!” A woman’s voice said cheerily.
“Hey! Where are you?!” Vaughn asked. His heart sank when he heard how raspy and guttural his voice was, like a demon’s.
“Down here!” The woman said.
Vaughn looked down.
There was a woman dressed like a Christmas elf, with glittering colors of red and green, but she was so tiny. Tinier than any elf he’d imagine to be.
Oooh well the plot certainly just continues to thicken on that one. I can't wait to see where this one is going to end up putting us here as things are starting to get just a little bit crazier with every passing line here.
“Did you…touch my ornament?” The woman asked nervously.
“That ornament was yours?” Vaughn asked.
“Yes! I put my name on it.” Axira said.
That was her name? It’s not a secret word? Oh… Vaughn thought, disappointed.
“You didn’t touch it, did you?” Axira asked.
“I did. Why?” Vaughn asked.
Axira scratched the back of her head furiously, brown hair falling over her face. When she was done, she looked up at Vaughn with frightened eyes and said:
Oh dearie me, that certainly doesn't sound like its going to end up going too el for Vaughn especially how the touching part definitely seems to be a quite important trigger for whatever craziness this here ornament manage to
“That ornament was meant to make me slightly taller.I’m an elf. It only works for elves. If humans use it, then they get as tall as buildings.” Axira said.
“There’s a cure though, right?” Vaughn asked.
“For elves, it fades away. For humans, it’s permanent. When I say permanent, it’s permanent. You won’t grow old. You won’t die. You’ll just be this tall forever.” Axira said.
“Do you mean it?”
“Yes. I’m sorry!”
Well that certainly is quite the terrifying prospect the longer you end up thinking about it. I love the way that you introduce it here, starting us out slow with just the height thinking making us assume that maybe its okay not the worst that happened, maybe things will turn out okay but then it really kicks into the full nightmare to the end there and you can see that slow descent into proper terror as the weight of the situation truly manages to set in there.
Vaughn’s head was spinning with terror, horrid thoughts swirling in his brain.
He’d never be able to see his friends again. He wouldn’t be able to spend Christmas with his family. Why, he couldn’t even fit in his own house.
A few minutes ago, he thought that being left out of the party was the most terrible thing that happened to him.
But the curse…that was a fate worse than death.
Axira was walking back home with her ornament, but Vaughn stayed paralyzed in the cave, too choked with disbelief to move.
He was a monster forevermore.
Well it seems he's going to be doomed that in between form here for the rest of his life although it is interesting to see what direction he might pick in terms of either causing hurt right back to others or if he's just going to try and exist in this state without causing any active pain to others.
Aaaaand that's it for this one.
Overall: Overall, quite an interesting little tale, from the little setup there to see it all just unfold. Its a nice little flow there and I love how you just pretty much left it to us to try an interpret exactly what kind of craziness is now going to end up happening at the end of it all. Its a very nice little ride and certainly does leave you with a lot to think about.
As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Kate
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