The beam hit them, and they were suddenly unable to move. She hobbled toward them, approaching the frozen and now terrified family, looking at each one of them. "I will offer my hospitality...but there is always a price," she said.
She moved to Laura's side. She grabbed one of Laura's hands tightly in her clawlike grip. Laura's hair began to go completely grey and lifeless as the color and bounce returned to the hag's own hair. The woman began to stand up straight, seeming to grow a few inches as Laura began to stoop over as she moved into her sixties and beyond. The rapidly youthening hag pressed her walking stick into Laura's free hand. Even Laura's clothes seemed to age into rags as the woman's dress was restored to new.
As the woman approached middle age, Laura approached her eighties. By the time the changes completed, an extremely attractive middle-aged woman stood there in front of a withered old Laura. "That should do nicely," the woman said.
