The creature broke down the front door and stepped out of the storm. The cottage was unlike any place it had ever seen. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, and the furniture were all painted white. The front room was lined with shelves of tiny glass bottles filled with colorful liquids.
The creature was parched from its trek through the vicious storm. It took a bottle from a shelf, twisted off the small golden cap, and smelled the red liquid inside. The fluid smelled like a fruity juice, so the creature threw its head back and downed the bottle in one gulp. Not only did the liquid instantly quench the creature’s thirst, but it also reenergized the creature and made it feel warm inside. The creature inspected the bottle and saw that the word REJUVENATION was engraved on the glass. It checked the other bottles on the shelves and discovered similar engravings. The blue liquids were labeled YOUTH, the pink liquids were labeled BEAUTY, the purple bottles were labeled VIBRANCY, and the turquoise bottles were labeled STAMINA.
The strange engravings aroused the creature’s curiosity. It searched the cottage for more clues about what kind of establishment it had stumbled into.
In the back of the room the creature found a wall covered by a curtain. It pulled a tassel and the curtain separated, revealing a large mirror with a golden frame. As soon as the creature realized it was a mirror, it quickly shielded its eyes to avoid its reflection. Looking into the creature’s eyes instantly turned any observer into stone—and the creature itself was no exception.
If someone managed to get a glimpse of it before being turned into stone, they would see she was a woman with glowing red eyes, fangs, and a long, scaly body. Instead of hair, the woman had a head full of hissing snakes that constantly fought one another for dominance. The monster’s name was Medusa, and she was from a world far beyond the realm of fairy tales.
Strangely, as Medusa shielded herself from her reflection, she noticed that something was very different about her appearance. The powerful glow that was usually emitted by her eye sockets had disappeared. She peeked through her fingers at the mirror, and her gaze drifted up her body and landed on her face—but miraculously, Medusa wasn’t turned to stone. Instead of the bright red pupils that infamously turned people into statues, Medusa saw a pair of brown eyes she hadn’t seen in a very long time. She glanced down at the empty bottle in her hand and realized that the liquid inside wasn’t juice, but a potion.
As Medusa gazed into her new eyes, her reflection started to transform, too. She watched in amazement as the hideous creature in the mirror slowly turned into a beautiful woman. Her head of snakes became a head of thick, sandy hair, her scaly skin became smooth and tanned, and her long coiled body became a voluptuous figure under a crimson toga. The Mirror of Truth had only changed Medusa’s reflection, but for the first time in decades, Medusa saw the woman she was before she was turned into a monster.
Medusa wondered what other kinds of sorcery the cottage might contain. A door caught her eye on the other side of the room, and she went to it. Although it had several locks and bolts, the door was wide open and led to a steep staircase descending into a basement. Medusa slithered down the steps and discovered the twenty sleeping children under Morina’s dark spell.
“Hello!” said a polite voice behind her.
Medusa looked over her shoulder and found another mirror leaning against the basement wall. A cheerful frog man wearing a three-piece suit waved at her from inside it. For a brief second, Medusa instinctively covered her eyes to spare the frog man from being turned into stone, forgetting that the potion had transformed her eyes. It had been so long since Medusa had communicated with another living thing, she’d almost forgotten how.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” the frog man said.
“What in Zeus’s name is that supposed to mean?”
“Unfortunately, I’ve lost my memory,” he explained. “I’ve been searching for someone who might recognize me and help me remember, but so far you’re the only person I’ve found.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but we’ve never met,” Medusa said. “Believe me—I would know if we’d crossed paths.”
“Well, that’s a shame,” the frog man said. “I guess I’ll have to keep searching. I’ve looked practically everywhere, but everything is empty. It makes me wonder if there’s a sale happening somewhere.”
“How did you get inside the mirror?” Medusa asked.
“Oh, I was cursed,” he explained. “I can’t remember who or what put me in here, nor when or how it happened, but I do know I was very upset about it.”
“Was this cottage your home?” she asked.
“Hmmm,” the frog man said as he looked around the basement. “It seems very familiar, but I don’t think it was my home, per se. I know very little about myself, but I can’t imagine I was the type who kept unconscious children in the basement.”
Medusa took a second look at the mysterious children. For the first time, she noticed that their skin had a light glow, and even though they were all the size of children, many had the wrinkles and crow’s-feet of people much older.
“What happened to them?” she asked.
“Looks like they’re under some sort of spell,” he said.
“I suppose that makes all of us kindred spirits.”
“You mean, you’re cursed, too?” the frog man asked.
Medusa shot him a look—wasn’t it obvious?
“Well, it would be rude to just assume,” the frog man said. “Who cursed you, then? Was it the same person who cursed me or the children?”
“That’s very unlikely,” Medusa answered. “I was damned by a jealous goddess in my home world. She turned my hair into snakes, covered my body in scales, and cursed my eyes to turn anyone they saw into stone. I was so ashamed of myself and terrified of harming people that I secluded myself on an island called Sarpedon. I lived on the island for years until I was captured and brought to this world.”
“Who captured you?”
“A terrible army of pirates, winged monkeys, and card soldiers,” she said. “They kept me blindfolded in a cage and used me to turn their enemies into stone. Eventually I escaped and have been searching the woods for a place to isolate myself ever since. The longer I roam, the more lives I ruin.”
“If your eyes turn others into stone, how am I not a statue?” the frog man asked.
“I drank a potion upstairs that returned my eyes to normal,” Medusa explained. “I’m not sure how long the potion will last, but there are hundreds more where it came from. They’re engraved with words like youth, beauty, and stamina—all the things I’m lacking.”
“That’s wonderful!” the frog man said. “Suppose you drank all the potions—do you think it would turn you back into your human form?”
Medusa hadn’t thought about it, but the idea mesmerized her.
“It’s certainly worth a try,” she said.
A mutual smile stretched across their faces, but the frog man’s smile faded when a troubling thought crossed his mind.