Breathe. Avery’s mind demanded, Relax. How was she going to concentrate on shielding her mind if her body wouldn’t even do what she wanted?

Avery sat alone in the gazebo, trembling with the panic she had been trying to ward off. Her arms were tightly folded around her knees, trying to contain the quivering shakes. Her pocket watch, which had been deposited roughly onto the wooden gazebo floor, ticked to remind her of every second she no longer had.

What little self control she had held onto during the night was vanishing faster than the night could become morning. Faster than the sun rose. What little strength the moonlight had shared with her was barely enough to support her mounting trepidation. Avery was on the verge of losing her mind. Better, she thought, than having her sanity, but not being able to control it. Better than losing herself to somebody else during the daylight. Better than becoming someone’s puppet.

Avery’s eyes darted back and forth between her pocket watch and the half-risen sun. Even the slice of gold-washed daylight was more intense than the pale sheen of the moon. Her sole support, the nighttime, resided. It betrayed her to the dawn.

Avery could feel it. It was coming. Her body repudiated her mind. She slowly was aware of a connection being severed. The connection between her mind and body. Then, at the apex of her panic, she felt the elasticity of the mind control slap into her brain. It fit itself around her thoughts like a rubber band. Like an elastic glove. The daylight had prevailed over her will once again.

Avery’s shakes halted. Her conscience told her that the new serenity she felt was false, but she ignored it. Avery’s daylight mind felt foolish.. Every night she had gone through the same terror, and every day she felt inane over her behavior.

Avery felt powerful and merciless. She felt a new strength solidify the core of her being. The softness within her crystallized into something much harder. Again, she felt her conscience screaming at her that this was all wrong, all false. All unwanted.

No, she pushed the little voice back. It’s right. The night is wrong.

Avery didn’t look at it as mind control anymore. She looked at it as an impenetrable gate that made her sturdy and immaculate. If she didn’t have this new-found confidence, she would never be able to withstand the daylight. It was too harsh on her nighttime frailness.

Unaware that a set of reflective eyes were watching her, she took a step toward her ticking pocket watch. Puzzled by her own previous apprehension, she kicked the watch to the side of the gazebo. It was useless to her. Until tonight, of course, when you will again clutch it in your hands. Her own thoughts buzzed at her like flies. Avery didn’t want to think of the next night, when she would again become the childish pixie of a human she became every night. Avery pointedly disregarded the warnings her mind was shooting at her. She would rather defy them than worry about them. Living in the moment.

She resumed her daily behavior from where she left off the day before. Wreaking complete havoc in the human world. YOU are a human. This is NOT you, her conscience whispered. Why was she being nagged at so much? Avery wrinkled her nose. She was getting on her own nerves. Of course this was her. She wasn’t a human. She was an elf. Avery brought her hand up to her face to prove it. It was soft and white. She touched her nose; angular and sharp. Her ears, she confirmed, were pointed. See? She was an elf. The change wasn’t only psychic. It was physical too.

It’s not mind control! Avery’s conscience shouted at her. She winced. The aggravating voice was getting louder. The elastic feeling comes from a SPELL. At that moment, the elasticity of the spell decided to demonstrate itself with an uncomfortable squeeze. Avery’s mind felt ready to collapse on itself.

Avery struggled to remember a day where this had happened to her before. She came up with nothing. You’re breaking free. Breaking free? Of her newfound vigor?
No! Don’t stop struggling! Keep fighting it! Avery stumbled back by the force of the voice’s demand. Without warning, the loud ticking of the abandoned pocket watch flowed into Avery’s ears. The sound brought her truth, surprising her immensely. She had never opposed the elastic mind glove before. The daylight had never brought her understanding of the night, as the night had brought her understanding of the day. Now she only wanted the bindings gone.
The rubber-band-like coating on her mind squirmed and tightened itself. Avery mentally tried to pry it off, but it hurt. It gripped her even harder, compressing her mind so she could barely think straight. Even though it was all psychological, her physical brain felt deprived, as if the elastic band was blacking it off from some vital source of existence. Avery lifted her elfin hands and seized her head. It’s okay. Keep calm, but don’t stop fighting! Just then, she felt the monster loosen just slightly and, mentally, she dove in to try and take advantage of the new vulnerability. It worked. She pinched the elastic covering and tugged, prying the painful spell away from her mind. She felt it lunge for some stray thoughts, but it barely grazed them before she yanked mentally with more force. She felt the elasticity of the spell try in vain to form itself around whatever was pulling at it, but it slid around like Jell-O before it snapped itself out of her psychological aura and back to whoever cast it.
Avery realized that she never really changed into an elfin girl. The spell had influenced her enough to where she saw herself as an elf and felt strong and perfect, like and elf, but she never had been anything but human. Elves weren’t real. But who, she wondered, cast the spell? She decided she didn’t care. She couldn’t have been more exultant. Not another night would she be overridden with panic and fright. Not another day would she be used and manipulated by a spell. The daylight was her friend once again.
The observing eyes had vanished, leaving Avery with know knowledge that they had ever been spying upon her. After two years of manipulating Avery with spells, the girl had finally rebelled. The witch would have to search for another puppet to play with.