CHAPTER THREE

WAKE UP AS A DIFFERENT MAN

Andrew wakes up from a good night’s sleep with no idea

of what happened the night before, with his head facing the
pillow.
“Uh... My head’s spinning like crazy… Maybe Lucian’s right...
Maybe I actually go to girls unconsciously…”
As he gets up from the bed, he looks around the room and
he gets shocked. He has never seen this room before. The walls
are painted yellow, and most of them have posters of different
rock bands or games. The furniture looks old and dusty. The
only thing he recognizes is Lisa’s red backpack sitting beside the
bed.

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“HOLD UP! I’M IN LISA’S ROOM?! WH… WHY AM I HERE? GOD, I
HOPE I DON’T ACTUALLY DO THAT KIND OF STUFF! ESPECIALLY
TO HER!”
After a few moments, someone knocks at the door.
Andrew gets startled and falls off the bed.
“Dammit. Yes?”
Lisa walks in the room calmly with two slices of bread
covered in jam and a cup of milk on a plate and places it on the
desk.
“Good morning.”
“Wait… why am I in your room?!”
“You… don’t remember?”
“OH MY GOD! WHAT DID I DO?! LISA I’M SO SORRY I… I WASN’T
MYSEL…”
“Why the hell are you apologizing? You should thank me,
because if it wasn’t for me, you would sit in the streets all night
long.”
“… in the streets?”
“Yes. I found you passed out while I was out to buy some
groceries, because, apparently, I had none left! You were just
sleeping like a rock in some weird alley. Did someone beat you
up that bad or… are you drinking? That could explain your
mood lately, if I think about it.”
“I don’t even know why I was in that alley in the beginning!
Where is my stuff?”
“Your backpack was in the trash bin and I had to give it a wash.
It was almost as bad as your smell.”
“Very funny… Wait! I was coming back home late because I
forgot my backpack at school. I remember walking home and
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taking a shortcut but that is it!”
“Are you sure you’re not drinking?”
“Oh, sure! I’ve focused so much to escape from this school only
to give up and start drowning myself in alcohol now! Sure
thing! Hey… did my parents call me or anything?”
“They did. I told them we were at Lucian’s house all night
watching movies. I even called him to tell them\ the same thing
if he was somehow called by them. The clown took ages to
respond.”
“Were they okay with the idea? After all, I promised to come
home for dinner yesterday…”
“They actually acted a little strange when they heard me at
your phone… Your mom started to giggle and stuff like that…
Some weird parents you have, you know?”
“Of course they would do that over the phone… Imagine seeing
them like that in person every single time I come back home…”
“Alright. Thanks a lot for keeping me here. I owe you big time.
But now I must get home.”
Lisa grabs him by his sleeve.
“At least eat something. You look like you didn’t eat in days.”
Andrew eats the food on the plate and grabs his stuff.
“Before you leave, are you sure you are alright with going home
alone? You looked pretty bad last night.”
“I’m cool. Thanks for everything.”
Andrew leaves. Lisa closes her door and falls on the floor acting
concerned for him.
“I want to believe him, but something clearly is wrong. I better
not ask him about it. Sure. Yes. He’ll tell me if he actually trusts
me, won’t he?”
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 Andrew goes home and his parents are in the kitchen
preparing their breakfast.
“Hey, pretty boy! How was your night with Lisa, huh?” his
father said.
“Dad, there was Lucian and his younger brother too, you
know.”
“Yeah but he doesn’t live in a single room, you know…”
His mother bursts into laughing but tries to remain
composed.
“You sure know how to ruin my mood, you know.”
“Ah, calm down! I’m just joking with you! Cheer up a little!”
“Yes… I’m going to the bathroom then I’ll just get some jogging
done. See you later!”
“Don’t forget to bring water with you like last time.”
“Sure thing!”
Andrew goes to the bathroom to wash his face. He takes
off his glasses and finds out that his vision is good enough to
see every scratch on the sink. He tries to put the glasses back
on, only to see his vision become blurry again.
“What the… is going on with me…? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING
ON?!”
He then hears the slow and almost inaudible dripping from
his sink, and even sees the impurities in the water. He gets
scared and his hand comes down, smashing the sink out of the
wall.
He goes to his room immediately and replaces his lenses
with the provisional lenses which came with the frame.
“I need to place the sink back fast! After that… WHAT THE HELL
IS THIS?! Nobody needs to know right now…”
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 Andrew places the sink back and grabs his shoes, going
outside to run. After ten kilometers, he realizes he is not tired
at all.
“I usually get tired after five kilometers… Why the hell am I so
cool right now? IT’S DOUBLE THE DISTANCE!”
Andrew starts questioning his abilities as he remembers
moments from the night before after entering that dark alley.
His eyes are wide open. He is terrified of what he just
remembered.
“WHO WAS THAT GUY? WHAT DID HE WANT? His face… OH MY
GOD, HIS FACE!”
He tries to calm himself down, but it barely works.
“I should just go back home and call it a day.”
Andrew sprints back home at full speed. He soon sees
himself running faster than a car along the street.
“Man, there sure is a lot of traffic today.”
He gets home, greets his parents and goes straight to the
bathroom. As he washes his face, the lights flicker in a chaotic
manner. The sink starts to shake, and the mirror in front of him
shatters in one corner, then, the corner falls on the floor,
shattering again.
“What the…?”
As he looks in the mirror, he is shocked to see that his
reflection is gone. The only thing he sees instead of his own
body is the figure of the mysterious person he encountered the
last night, waving his hand at him with the same abnormally
large and terrifying smile.
He screams as he bumps into the shelf behind him, which
breaks down and falls to the floor.
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