Love Potion No. 9

Gerard blinked as he stepped through the door and into the dark shop, a tiny bell ringing to announce his entrance. The curtain hanging in front of the window swirled out of his way as if to let him pass, but he stood completely still, taking in the sight of everything before deciding whether to go any further. Fields of purple cloth cleared the darkness from his eyes, and a layer of incense smoke clouded the air above his head like a soft piece of velvet.

A soft rustling sound to his left caught his attention, and he turned to see what it was. A woman had appeared just a few feet away, moving easily around the stacked boxes and priceless antiques lining every available space to reach him. A sparkly orange scarf tied around her head and flowing over one shoulder restrained the black ringlets of her hair, while two large hoop earrings rested comfortably among them. She smiled mysteriously, several chains of coins jingling as she twirled across the room towards him.

“Are you-”

“Madame Rue?” she finished, voice thick and heavy as the velvety smoke, surrounding him and beckoning him closer as she let out a low laugh. “Yes, I am.”

Gerard blinked and took a deep, slow breath, still shocked at her otherworldly appearance. It was as if she had stepped out of a time long past, when fortune-tellers still held an amount of precedence in the world. Despite this, she was young by the standards of such a profession, contrary to what he had expected to see. She grasped his hand and led him through the maze of purple, twisting and turning easily as he stumbled along behind her, suddenly feeling awkwardly modern and out of place. She pushed aside a beaded curtain and danced to the other side of the room, sitting at a small table and silently inviting him to join her with a fluid movement of her gold-laden wrist. He moved slowly and steadily as if drawn to her by a magnet, completely opposite of her constantly moving form, then lowered himself into the other chair with the pace of an old man.

“Now, why have you come to me?” she asked in an accent as antique as her appearance. Gerard drew in a deep, slow breath and began to tell her everything. She listened with visible amusement as he explained how miserable he was whenever he noticed one of his friends with their latest girlfriend, or how he still wasn’t sure this was the best answer, but he felt he had nothing left to lose. Her hands darted across the table and snatched his right hand, which was still tightly rolled up into a fist and quivering like a leaf. Uncurling his fingers, she examined the lines crossing it with a practiced eye, and he breathed a quiet sigh and relaxed a little as her fingers lightly traced their way across his palm.

“Hmm…” She snapped suddenly, something clicking in her brain. “I know what you need.” She leapt from her chair and twirled over to one side of the room, grabbing objects from several cabinets and shelves with such speed it was as if she had more than two hands. She poured liquids and powders from glass bottles of all shapes into a small wooden bowl, and Gerard heard ominous bubbling and hissing sounds as the chemicals reacted. She filled a small bottle with the substance and lightly stepped back over to him, offering him the object with a slight shiver that made her shimmering scarf dance in the low light. He hesitantly took it from her.

“What do I-”

“Drink.”

Gerard put it to his lips and tilted it back. The sour liquid slid down his throat, burning everything it touched. He grit his teeth together in pain as colors swarmed across his vision. Suddenly, everything seemed brighter and more alive; the few glowing lamps hanging from the ceiling sizzled in his sight, and he stumbled out of the chair, trying desperately to find his way back to the outside world.

Within moments he burst into the light, a stark contrast to the darkness of the ancient, wondrous shop. The cool air seemed to clear his senses for a moment, but the dizziness soon returned. He looked around, and for the first time, everything seemed beautiful. A strange urge overcame him, something inside him telling him to throw aside his inhibitions and chase after every woman he saw. Normally, Gerard never would’ve done such a thing, but the world was spinning around him, so that was exactly what he did.
-
Several hours and countless protests later, Gerard realized he had gotten himself lost. Night had nearly fallen, and the cold day’s chill only deepened once the sun disappeared. The bottle of foul-tasting potion still dangled in his hand, now forgotten as he tried to find his way back to where he had started. His mind buzzed with the long-lost sensation of being drunk with happiness. The only thing he could complain about was that so many people seemed less than pleased to see him, but even that was not enough to numb the dizzying joy he was feeling.

Finally thinking to ask for directions, he caught sight of someone standing under a streetlight and approached the person.

“Excuse me, but could you tell me where I am? I think I’m lost,” he said, tapping the person on the shoulder. She turned around, and the dizzying sensation returned to him instantly once he caught sight of her beauty. “…lost in your eyes, that is,” he added before abruptly leaning forward and kissing her.

She abruptly shoved him away, smacking the bottle out of his hand in the process. It hurtled through the air in a perfect arc and shattered against the concrete, fizzling lightly as its contents met with the air. The noise snapped him out of his semi-drunken state. He blinked a few times, realizing too late that she had a gleaming police badge attached to her shirt.

“Sir, are you intoxicated?” she asked firmly. He placed a hand on his head to ward off the oncoming headache.

“No…no, sorry…” Gerard could barely figure out where he was going as he turned and wandered away from his biggest mistake of the day. He stumbled down the sidewalk with his eyes closed as waves of guilt washed over him and cleared his mind. It didn’t take long before he found himself back at the door of the shop, feeling sick from the sudden change in his mood. He pushed his way through it and simply stood in place as the door closed behind him, cutting off the cold air outside.

“You have come back to me.”

The woman appeared less than a foot away from him, slipping silently behind him to lock the door behind her back. He turned to look at her, and the world began to swirl around him again. She smiled, eyes twinkling.

“What happened? I dropped the bottle and it broke and then-”

“The spell was broken,” she finished, taking his hand and leading him to the room hidden by the curtain of beads. The tails of her scarf and soft curls of her dark hair rippled across his face as she danced over to the table, and for a moment the lightest scent of roses filtered through his nose. Any other time, he would have closed his eyes to enjoy it, but he felt like he was going to faint. “I should not have trusted you with it, it seems.”

“Then why’d you give it to me in the first place?” Gerard asked, sounding hurt.

She shrugged. “I give you what you want. It is not my fault if you do something to ruin it.”

He sighed sadly. He considered leaving, but he had no idea where he would go, and he didn’t want to chance running into one of the countless girls he had kissed earlier. He regretted ever coming to the shop and getting himself into such a situation.

Then again, he never would have met the extraordinary gypsy now dancing before him.

She seemed to be in her own world, twirling her body through an elaborate set of steps and moving with the ease of water. Her eyes were closed, but she delicately stepped around the cramped space as if it were the only dance floor in the world, and the most perfect one at that. Her rhythmic, flowing movements quickly entranced him, more powerfully than the potion ever had.

As she passed in front of him once again, her eyes opened, wide and dark and glittering. She instantly caught his gaze as if she had wrapped a hand around his mind and pulled him to his feet with an invisible string, for he soon found himself standing before her, staring deeply into her eyes. At some point the scarf had unwound itself from her head and become coiled around her arm like a serpent, releasing the full fury of her dark hair. When she twirled closer and wrapped an arm around his neck, the orange tail flitted over his shoulder with a thousand tiny flashes of light.

Sadness suddenly flickered across her face. Her eyebrows arched up and inward, and the mysterious look in her eyes gave way to one that broke his heart.

“I am sorry I have done this to you,” she whispered. She backed away from him, seeming to curl in upon herself as she crossed her arms and closed her eyes. He instantly missed the warmth of someone else being so close to him and walked over to her with very little hesitation, sliding his arms around her waist and pulling her into a tight hug.

“Don’t be,” he murmured. She felt unnaturally stiff in his arms, but she seemed to relax with a few slow, deep breaths. “What’s your real name?”

“Lyn,” she answered, pulling away and looking up at him. He was so close to her now…it would be so easy…

But he waited to see what she would do.

He had to admit, he was surprised when she leaned forward and kissed him.

She pulled away quickly, shocked by her own actions, but he simply smiled at her.

“Thank you, Lyn,” he said softly. The wild look had returned to her eyes, drawing the corners of her mouth into a grin.

“Dance with me?”

Gerard took her hand as she began to lead him through the steps of a slower dance. The chains and coins and bracelets shook with her movements, creating their own music just for her. He laced their fingers, feeling the silky fabric of the scarf entwine itself around his hand as well, and brought her close again, lamps twinkling like stars as they kissed for a long, slow moment that seemed to last forever.