Now that my eyes had adjusted, I could make out small glass cupboards filled with plastic bottles. Inside were neon liquids sizzling away.
“I think he’s gone,” Nathan said quietly, removing the palm of his hands from the skin of my lips.
“Probably to call the police.” I sighed. “Come on, let’s grab some of this weird stuff and jump out the window.”
We took out our phones and flicked on our flashlights.
I stared at Nathan’s with a smirk. “So, Amy Spies, huh? Girl just wanna have fun?”
“It was my little sister’s, all right,” Nathan grumbled, eyeing a purple liquid on the shelf and stumbling towards it.
Nathan had three sisters, all cute and girly. I seriously didn’t know how the piggy-tailed princesses were related to this hunk of a giant.
Stashing another couple of bottles of liquid inside the large pocket of my Care Bear hoodie, we turned to leave.
“In there, Police! I heard them!” the croaky Mr. Scott was screaming from down the hall.
An army of people were running, hammering their feet on the ground and towards the door. The door belonging to the room we were in. Nathan and I shared a panicked glance before racing to the window. A long rope travelled across the room, which neither of us saw in the dark, and before I knew it, Nathan’s bear-body was falling on top of me. We were tumbling onto one shelf, with potions flying out of my pockets and into the air. Hot, burning liquids splashed my face and, just as the door swung open and lights flooded the room, I felt Nathan grab my waist and thrust me out the window.
Thorns spiked my back, digging into my spine and entangling themselves through my mane of raven hair.
“Oi! Show yourself!” said a police officer from inside.
No reply. I slid myself onto the back wall, so that the bush hid my face, and slowly raised myself upwards, my eyes hovering on top of the windowsill.
The lights were switched on now in the room. Five policemen stood there, looking at Mr Scott, unimpressed.
Wait, that wasn’t right.
Where was Nathan?
Something locked around my waist again and I felt myself hauled upwards. Oh no, the police had found me, I was going to prison.
I should never have done this. Mum would be so mad.
“Shut up, Evie. Let’s get out of here.”
Nathan. Thank the heavens.
“Put me down, bear-man,” I said quickly, but he ignored me, and we hurried down the pebble path, off the driveway and into the street.
My feet finally made contact with the floor, though something felt off. I felt heavy, my feet felt larger, but I sigh with relief. We’d survived! We weren’t going to jail, Nathan and I–
A shriek hammered though my lungs. “Who are you?”
A figure stood in front of me, a skinny, short figure, with Nathans face and hair, yet nothing like Nathan. He looked how I imagine Nathan’s little brother would look—if he had a brother. Yet, this boy looked vaguely familiar.
Another shriek sounded, but it came out of the boy’s lungs.
“Who are you?”
What?
I stared at him in disbelief. “I’m Evie! Who are you? What did you do with Nathan.” I paused, “How did you carry me?”
“I’m … Nathan.” The boy turned to look down at his reflection in the puddle between us. The streetlights made his skinny build distinctive, and his brown eyes like shiny chocolate drops above his cheeks.
“I’m …” Another shriek.
“We’re going to wake up the neighbourhood!” I hissed.
“No, no, no! It’s the damn potions! It must be! It made me,” the boy groaned, “like my thirteen-year-old-self. Five years of hitting the gym all wasted because of those stupid potions! What’re we gonna do?”
“What are you talking about?” I croaked.
The boy, or Nathan, balled himself into a ball and whimpered, “I’m still me, aren’t I?”
But it wasn’t my reflection that awaited me in the puddle, it was a … a …
Kangaroo?!
Okay, this seems silly, I know, but seriously, that’s what was staring back at me.
More shrieking.
“What happened?”
“It’s the potions!” Nathan hammered his fist into the streetlight. He frowned in pain. “I can’t even punch a stupid pole!”
“What do you mean … the potions?”
“They turned us into these!”
“How is that possible?”
Nathan stopped and sighed, his short brown frizzy hair bouncing off his shoulders. I remembered when he looked like this—now that I came to think about it. He was skinny, and funny looking. He had that goofy grin and sweetness, and his legs were too long for his short torso. As he got older, he’d shaved his head and, well, gotten bulky. Not until now, though, did I notice how different he did, in fact, look.
“Never mind, don’t answer the how possible thing. Why are we like this?”
“It’s the potions!”
“I know it’s the potions! Why did the potions do this?”
“Becau-zzzzzz.” He looked down at his feet, in an old pair of Nikes. “I think we turned into the things we fear most.”
Maybe it was true. I was completely horrified to go anywhere near kangaroos.
