Mix & Match - Part One

Pacing around my meager apartment I constantly glance between the kitchen window and the clock on my phone. Beyond the clean pane of glass I can see the intense glow of the moon outside, a dull red color beginning to overtake the bright white of the full moon.

"Five more minutes" I mutter breathlessly, grinding my teeth as I find my gaze drifting to the torn and aged page resting on my coffee table.

Walking over I snatch up the large and fragile piece of paper, straining my vision as I try to read it in the dim light of my living room. Moving slowly about the small apartment I begin to light candle after candle, the large black wax cylinders giving me barely enough light to read the page.

I had found this a few months ago, an old forgotten book in one of the library annexes littering my campus. The annexes were largely a place for storing old books, tomes and volumes that never saw the light of day unless specifically requested by staff or students.

I had been in search of an old out-of-print book for my thesis. However, after repeatedly asking the library staff for assistance they had simply told me they couldn't find what I was asking for, giving me the key to the annexes and telling me to find it myself.

Weeks of pawing through the old, dusty, and cramped shelves had turned up nothing. As I started to reach the end of my rope I spied the weathered and beaten spine of this unnamed book, the wear and tear long eroding any title it once had.

With great care I had taken it out, curious as to what it could be. The cracking discolored pages were filled with strange symbols and images, dulled images of ritual circles and rough depictions of people. I read through from page to page enraptured by what I was seeing but unable to really understand a word of it. However, as I reached towards the back of the book my eyes went wide as I found one translated page.

While the writing remained indecipherable the margins were filled with scrawled notes in black pens, arrows pointing to specific sections with shorthand explanations of what they meant...and what they were instructing the reader to do.

Hastily I had town the page from the book, sliding it into my pocket for further reading as I placed the book back onto the shelf to return to its forgotten state. After getting home I had read the page with great interest, finding it describing some sort of ritual which could make the user 'an ideal self'. It apparently did this by amalgamating traits from other people, swapping out aspects of the user for the desired traits in the other person.

The margins had listed a rough set of things that could be swapped, largely in a confused series of scribbled questions;

 

Real? Maybe Physical? Psychic? 

Mental Probably, Maybe Education Too? 

Does This Say History? Story? Might Be Past or Life Stuff

Beyond the elements that could be traded there were also a series of difficult instructions to follow; A series of components, candle placement, specific timing during a blood moon, and lastly a limit on the ritual in that each user could only do it once per year.

After reading the page in full, or at least as much in full as the notes allowed me, I had largely forgotten about it as I carried on with my life and my thesis. However, as days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months the temptation to at least try the spell.

"It won't work" I had told myself every time I had thought about it, dismissing the page as nothing but a bit of folklore or fantasy.

However, when news of a blood moon began to fill my social media feed the desire to at least test the notes on the page became too strong to ignore. I had spent the ensuing days in a mad dash as I gathered the required components, burning through the entirety of that week's pay to fund this silly passion project. Before long I had filled my apartment with candles, chalk, and a variety of expensive herbs and flowers in preparation for the ritual.

As the minutes pass by I quickly set about my work, drawing a large series of specifically designed circles on the varnished wooden floor. With a minute to spare I carefully step in between my precisely drawn lines, not wanting to undo everything at the last minute.

Dropping into the center I hold up the page, chanting the phonetically translated words at the bottom of the page. As the time ticks over to midnight the light from the moon appears to grow more and more intense, the dull red glow becoming a bright scarlet as it streams in through the window. The lines of white chalk around me appear to take on the color, growing in brightness more and more before I'm forced to close my eyes thanks to their intensity.

Suddenly I find myself hit with a floating sensation. Slowly opening my eyes I'm met with a flurry of images rushing around me like water. Struggling to maintain my sense of balance in the void I had found myself in my heart races.

"It...it worked?" I whisper, choking on my words before I shout out louder "It fucking worked!"

Looking down at myself I appear to be dressed exactly like I had been only a few seconds ago, a large yellow sweater and gray sweatpants for maximum comfort. The chalk circles I had drawn mere moments ago sit just below me, glowing the deep red that had once blinded me. Moving my gaze to the shifting images around me I slowly reach out, placing my hand into the roiling mass of people in front of me. I feel something rest in my palm, getting caught in my cupped hand like a balloon filled with warm water. With great care I begin to pull my hand free, revealing the small wobbling orb I had plucked from the mass.

Peering closer at the jiggling shape I find it contains a picture, the image remaining the same from any angle I look at it. A pair of shimmering bright green eyes stare back at me, a long set of dark eyelashes fluttering on the eyelids.

"This is...someone's..." I mutter, leaning in before carefully returning the orb to the rapidly shifting stream of images around me.

"I shouldn't" I say, glancing down at myself. It couldn't just take these things, not from other people, but at the same time I needed to try at least one change. How could I not after spending so much time and money on this venture? How could I not test the limits of this newly found magic.

What I didn't know was that the page had not been fully translated. While it was correct in that I could take positive traits from people, swapping them into myself, in doing so I would also take a negative trait to balance things out.

"Well...Maybe just one" I say with a smirk, reaching into the water-like mass as I begin to paw around.