YES, I AM!!

I wore my “hers” black robe and descended to see if I needed to clean up anything in the kitchen before the meal arrived. The cabinets were all navy blue with white handlers and, for what it seemed, everything inside it was pretty neat, like the housekeeper had just passed by.

I found some wine glasses hanging underneath the upper cabinets, a mini electric bodega under the counter and decided to wait for the pizza with some cabernet in my hands. As soon as I took the first sip, the aged grape soft flavor invaded my sensor system and I sighted with my eyes closed. God! I needed it.

The doorbell went off and I closed the front of my robe to attend to the door. What a fast delivery they got down here! I heard Carl shouting something from upstairs, maybe asking for me to get the door.

When I opened it, I saw Chris wearing a blue polo shirt and matching cap with the Domino’s logo on them. The wine glass I forgot to leave in the kitchen just fell off my hands. What was this psychopath doing here, miles away from campus? I thought to myself. He checked me head to toe and I felt I wasn’t wearing enough clothes for the situation.

“Is that you, Chris?” I asked him, gulping a big ball of saliva. I looked with the corner of my eyes to see if I could find something to defend myself.

“No, ma’am. My name is Charles. That would be eighteen bucks.” He answered, offering me the pizza box.

I froze, not sure of whether to take it or not. Given the past history of him, I could only assume that there was a bomb in there ready to explode on my face. But maybe I could be imagining things and that guy was way too similar to him that suddenly made me remember the guy that **** me, I thought.

Shaking, I backed away still facing him to find my wallet, until I bumped my back into Carl. I felt instantly safer. If that man was really Chris, he was the only one that could confirm I was not delusional.

“Who is it, baby?” He asked behind me.

Wasn’t it obvious?

Chris — or “Charles”, as he said — stared behind me, looking up at Carl’s face. He made a calculating face as he was trying to remember something. When he laid his piercy eyes back on me, I felt shivers again. Could he try to do something to me even in Carl’s presence? I felt he was analyzing the situation before making his decision.

“Michael?” He called me by a boy’s name.

“Mikaela.” I corrected him.

Chris glanced an angry look towards Carl again and took a step in, entering our house. I shrieked and ran behind my fiance.

“Stop right there or I’m calling the police.” I found the only guts left inside me to say it with my voice trembling, almost crying.

That’s when I paid attention to Carl, who was too shocked to do something.

“I’ve woken you up.” Carl’s voice was a whisper.

Chris slowly took steps towards him and I could see tears coming down his eyes, as he was seeming to struggle against an invisible wave. I saw all his muscles rigidging up, a vein popping in his shoulder, while he tried to get near Carl.

“What have you done to him? Is this what you wanted, you twisted perv?” Chris hissed.

“That’s it, pal! I’m calling the cops on you.” I shouted and grabbed the phone on the wall.

I put it in my ear and dialed the emergency number on it, but the line was mute as it has never been connected to something. Chris looked at me and I stared inside his blue eyes for a moment that felt like eternity. I remembered him jogging with me in Central Park, going with me to a baseball game, the two of us traveling around the world avoiding France, his crying face, planes; an overwhelming rush of feelings that ran back into my mind, in the form of flashes.

I came to all my senses again and looked down at myself. I thought, where were my muscles? Why were Chris and Carl so much taller than me? Why was Carl covered in tattoos? Does he have muscles now?

“Chris, what’s going on? What happened?” I asked my brother.

“Wake up!” His whisper reverberated through the house.

I roared and felt my powers coming back into my man body, like I was awakening. I felt my muscles tensing up and my feet left the ground for a couple of seconds. I shut my eyes, summoning an intense green light to surround me, and collected it into a fireball between my hands. It felt liberating to feel my powers back again. I took one last look at Carl, who was sweating every liquid he had in that fake body of his. That was the last thing I saw when I exploded the ball, feeling everything around me disappear.