The Stripped Socks (Socks transformation)

The Stripped Socks

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Aaron.

Aaron was what one might consider a competitive gamer. He was an active player of a pvp (player vs player) mmorpg. Being ranked as one of the highest in the world, he took much pride in his hobby. Though very intelligent, he was also a bit anti-social and cold with many people. There were very few individuals in life whom he respected or cared for.

Aaron lived with his mother and younger brother. Though his relationship with his family was mostly positive, their communication had never been so great; especially with his younger bother. Eleven year old Conner idolized his older brother. He would sit next to Aaron and watch him play online whenever he got the chance, mainly just so he could spend time with him. Though Aaron hardly ever responded or showed any indication that he cared, Conner would nevertheless chatter on about his day at school and all his interests.

Aaron was a very superstitious teen, mainly stemming from his mother. His room was covered with various good luck trinkets like a rabbits foot, a horseshoe, a dreamcatcher ect. He genuinely believed that all of the good luck charms he'd gathered over the years were largely responsible for his high in-game ranking and win/loss ratio.

Whenever the seventeen year old would go out for his occasional exercise runs, he'd always keep an eye out for a four-leaf cover.

This was Aaron's life. A life that would change forever one fateful afternoon.

----

One day Aaron was visiting a local mall, mainly to purchase a new keyboard. His excessive gaming had broken his spacebar and he felt he was overdue for an upgrade anyways.

After leaving radioshack, he walked through the large, mostly vacant mall, hoping to grab a snack at the taco place on the far end. The mall itself wasn't doing particularly well in recent years. Many of its stores had been vacated, as most of people had begun shopping at a bigger, better mall that opened in a neighboring town about a year ago.

As Aaron walked through the quiet building, he couldn't help but acknowledge all the dark empty stores sealed away behind large walls of reflective glass.

It took almost two minutes of walking to reach the food court.

To Aaron's disappointment, the taco place had also gone out of business.

As he was about to turn around to leave, he heard a whisper coming from a strangely placed Kiosk in the middle of the barren food court.

It was covered with odd trinkets and veiled by a shimmery purple fabric. A few inscents were lit inside, causing jasmine scented smoke to billow out.

Driven by mere curiosity, Aaron momentarily peeked inside.

"Looking for something?" An old woman's voice suddenly crackled from within causing the teen to stagger.

"...Oh um, no, that's okay, I was just leaving" He couldn't help but get bad vibes from kiosk. Inside were bottles filled with strange looking plants and glass vials filled with who knows what.

"Are you sure? I have many powerful items here that you might find interesting~..."

"Powerful?...." The his ears perked.

"Yeeeeesss" The woman pulled open the veil and gestured for him to enter.

More curious than scared, the highschooler stepped inside.

The scent of jasmine flooded his senses as the smokey air entered his lungs.

"s-so um, do you have anything for luck?" His voice stuttered as he spoke.