'Run Jennie Run'

Jennie sprinted through the narrow alleyways, dodging trash cans like they were her ex-boyfriends at the reunion and leaping over discarded cardboard boxes and puddles like a rabbit on caffeine. Her heart pounded like a bass drum in a heavy metal band, her breaths coming rugged.

'Why do horror movies always take place in the worst places?' she thought, ducking under a low-hanging clothesline and narrowly avoiding a collision with a startled alley cat, which hissed in protest as if offended by her lack of coordination.

But alas! she nearly tripped over a small pebble emitting an otherworldly glow.

'Or maybe not a horror but a fantasy?...Dammit, I dunno' she thought, staring at the unusually glowing pebbles now covering the roadside like a trail of fallen stars. It was like, someone had carefully decorated a route to welcome her straight to heaven or hell.

Suddenly, the walls of the alleyway started twisting and rippling weirdly as if they were liquid. She glanced behind, her heart in her throat expecting to see the monster, but instead, there stood a gigantic solid brick wall; she was trapped with nowhere to run to.

The ground beneath her feet shifted, the pavement tiles rearranging like pieces of a sliding puzzle. Jennie stumbled, her mind spinning as reality distorted around her. Everything started to get blurry until her vision went dark, she felt like she was being swallowed into a bottomless pit that had materialized out of nowhere.

'What in the fucking world?' she gasped, her voice echoing strangely in the shifting space. When her vision cleared, the surroundings had already changed and now there she stood in the middle of a forest out of nowhere.

She barely had time to register this when a flock of crows, unusually big flew overhead,

"This is getting ridiculous," Jennie thought, half-expecting a wizard or a talking animal to pop out any moment now.

"I never wanted to fall in a Fantasy novel...fuck couldn't it have been rather a Romance novel?" she cried out to the universe. "At least there I'd get a hot love interest instead of... whatever this is."

She started to walk forward, every step reminding her that she had no idea where she was or what she was supposed to do. Now and then, she kicked at a pebble or snapped a twig in frustration.

"Seriously, what’s next? Am I supposed to find some magical artifact? Battle a monster?" she mused.

Instead of hearing a reply, she heard the rustling of leaves and the distant hoot of an owl that sounded as if mocking her. She rolled her eyes and kept walking, muttering to herself, about how she needed to start reading more contemporary fiction.

"Great, just great," Jennie grumbled, her frustration bubbling over like a pot of boiling water. "Next thing you know, I'll be befriending a wise old tree or something." The thought was ridiculous, of course, but nothing seemed impossible after everything she had been through. As she said this, she couldn't help but glance around, just in case one of the trees decided to take offence and turn into an ancient, lecturing oak.

But something caught her eye—a glint of light among the roots of a particularly large tree. Curiosity took the best of her and she decided to approach. Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw a small, intricately carved wooden box. It was out of place, like a prop from a different genre.

"What are the chances it’s full of skincare products?" she muttered, her eyes glinting in anticipation.

Her mind raced with possibilities. Maybe it contained the secret to eternal youth or a serum that promised perfect skin forever. "Wouldn't that be a dream?"

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'But what if it is like the Pandora's box?', she thought doubting her own judgement.

She brushed away the dirt and leaves covering it, the carvings on the box becoming more clear.

The box was beautiful, ancient-looking but somehow well-preserved. Jennie hesitated, her rational mind battling with curiosity, should she open it or not?

"Ah, screw it," she said finally. "This whole damn thing feels like a dream anyway."

She picked up the box, surprised at how light it felt in her hands. She ran her fingers over the carvings, trying to decipher their meaning, but they were in a language she couldn’t recognize.

With a deep breath, she carefully opened the lid.

"By the power of the moon's last gleam,

Turn this youth into a dream.

Grant her wisdom, wrinkled and grey,

For she shall age by a century today!"

A song started to play melodiously as a blinding light completely covered her vision. She felt herself being pulled, her surroundings shifting once again. The forest, the glowing flowers, the massive trees—all fading away as if they never existed in the first place.

And now, she was back in her apartment, standing in her living room. Everything seemed normal. The familiar belongings of her room, her cat lounging on the sofa, and the TV was still on, playing some sitcom she had forgotten about.

"What the hell...?" she muttered, looking around. The box was still in her hands, though now it seemed ordinary—just a simple wooden box.

'Had it all been a dream?' she thought to herself.

After a long time of spacing out and trying to figure out what had happened, if it was all a dream or reality, Jennie set the box on her coffee table and collapsed onto the sofa.

"That was the weirdest thing ever," she said aloud, scratching her cat behind the ears. "Was it even real?"

She reached for the box again.

"Maybe I should open it again?" a sense of anticipation tingling in her fingertips

Jennie's eyes widened.

Inside, nestled in velvet, was a small vial filled with a shimmering liquid. She picked it up, holding it up to the light.

"Skincare serum?" she whispered, a slow grin spreading across her face. "Maybe this dream wasn't so bad after all?"

She put the vial back into the box with a satisfied smile.

'Dreams with happy endings are the best' she thought, walking towards the bathroom.

She flipped on the light and looked into the mirror, preparing to brush her teeth.

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed, dropping her toothbrush into the sink. She leaned in closer, poking her cheek and watching the skin sag back into place.

Her cat wandered in, meowing curiously to ask what all the fuss was about. Jennie shook her head, trying to make sense of it all.

She slapped her face and started blinking rapidly.

"What in the actual fuck happened to me?" But instead of her usual reflection, she was greeted by the sight of a granny with white hair and wrinkled skin staring back at her.

"This is not happening," Jennie muttered, rifling through her day memories. "I sprinted through alleys, dodged magical nonsense, found a glowing pebble, got lost in a forest, and now—I'm old!" She couldn't help but laugh at the sheer absurdity.

'Am I still dreaming?' She washed her face with water and rubbed her eyes frantically. 'This has to be a dream, please let it be a dream' She pleaded before opening her eyes again.

But her reflection didn't change. She was still an old lady, with white hair and wrinkled skin. "Oh, come on!" she groaned, slapping the side of the mirror as if it would fix her reflection. "Seriously?"

Her cat jumped onto the bathroom counter, staring at her with wide, curious eyes. "Don't look at me like that!"

She sighed and slumped onto the toilet lid, the reality of her situation finally hitting hard. "Okay, so I'm an old lady now. How do I explain this at work tomorrow? 'Hey, boss, I aged fifty years overnight because of a magic box'? Yeah, this is so believable."

She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. "Well, this is just... fantastic," she muttered, her voice trembling.

With a final glance at her reflection in the mirror, she stood up and turned off the bathroom light, leaving her aged reflection in the dark.

As she lay on her bed, the weight of her situation suffocated her. She glanced at her phone, a picture of her younger self smiling back at her from the lock screen. Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring the image.

"What the hell am I going to do now?" she whispered, her voice cracking. The room felt colder, and lonelier than ever before.

Her dreams of the future felt like they had been ripped away, replaced with a harsh, unforgiving reality.

As she drifted into sleep, the last thought on her mind was a desperate plea: "Please, let this be a nightmare I can wake up from."

NEXT CHAPTER: PREVIEW

Pointy ears, a humongous body, and a face only a mother could love, all wrapped in green skin that could stop traffic—literally.

"Congratulations! Now you're the strongest." Yeah, right. He was the city’s newest tourist attraction.