I couldn’t contain anything in my mind nor my body; everything was going to my legs. They just kept running and running. I couldn’t even look back, I just kept going forward. I managed to shift my head to my left and my legs came to a steady halt when I realized that I was right in front of Vera’s Summer Goods.

She was still there: the mannequin of the gypsy lady. I remembered that it was not her; it was just a hollow shell. I walked up to her, but my brain was still trying to calm itself down. I looked down at my arm and the rubber controller that said, “ I will be Hector’s slave” was still there.

A sharp thought pierced into my brain: how? How am I not Hector’s slave? He clearly stuck it right onto my bare flesh! I looked back and forth between the mannequin and the rubber controller, trying to decipher what was going on. Had the controller already been used? No, I was the first person it was stuck onto. Was I immune to the rubber controller? No way, the gypsy lady used one on me the very first time we met, and it worked.

Then, the answer hit me right through my head: That’s it! The controllers can’t control the same person twice! I remembered from yesterday: I tried to reuse a rubber controller on mom to make use waffles for breakfast. It wasn’t that the controller was out of magic, it was because she had already been controlled once!

I wasn’t sure what to do next. I only noticed myself falling to my knees, with my eyes latched onto the mannequin, and my mouth whispering “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” to her. 

A voice echoed from a distance, “Andy! You stupid, little twerp! You’re going to pay for that!”

That’s right, the battle isn’t over yet. I still had to save my friends. I quickly stood back up, surveyed around the street, and caught Swift’s Sports Goods at the left corner of my eyes. I ran across the street, making sure to look both ways this time, and launched myself through the doors.