She gets what she wished for

The first thing Amanda noticed was the silence.

No hum of fluorescent lights. Just the quiet whir of a premium air conditioning system and the distant murmur of the city through floor-to-ceiling windows.

She blinked, her hands braced against polished mahogany instead of her chipped particleboard desk. She recognised this as the office of the former CEO of her company… now it seemed like it was hers. The office was massive, plush carpet underfoot, abstract art on the walls, and a nameplate gleaming in the low evening light:

Amanda Reimer

Chief Executive Officer

"What the hell?" Her voice sounded different—deeper, more assured. She touched her throat, then froze. Her fingers met smooth skin, no longer the dry, nervous picking of her cuticles she was used to.

A mirror hung near the door. The woman staring back was still herself but… older, maybe late twenties, with sharper cheekbones, perfectly styled hair, and a navy blazer that probably cost more than her old rent.

The pendant around her neck pulsed once, warm against her skin.

Then the memories hit.

A flood of images crashed into her mind, business school, promotions, boardroom victories. The late nights that had earned her this corner office. The weight of decisions that affected hundreds of employees. The respect in her colleagues' eyes when she walked into a room.

Amanda exhaled shakily. It worked. It actually worked. The necklace must be magic, it granted her wish.

She grabbed her new designer purse (since when had she started buying designer?) and practically floated to the elevator.

One Week Later

The numbers on Amanda's screen blurred together. It was past 8 PM, and her fifth coffee of the day had long since stopped working.

Her penthouse apartment sat empty, the gourmet kitchen untouched. The theatre tickets she’d bought herself gathered dust on the entryway table. Even the silk sheets of her king-sized bed might as well have been decorative, she hadn’t slept more than four hours in days.

The talisman lay heavy in her palm. As she toyed with it on her necklace.

She’d gotten everything she wanted. The power. The respect. The money. But the trade-off was brutal. Every waking moment consumed by meetings, crises, and decisions that left her drained.

Amanda closed her eyes. The pendant warmed instantly, as if it had been waiting. This wasn’t exactly what she wanted, but that didn’t matter because she could change that.

"I wish I had more free time to enjoy myself," she whispered.

The flash this time was violet, the heat so intense it bordered on pain. When it faded, Amanda wasn’t in her office anymore.