Sean walked back into the house. Brandon had just returned for lunch, but he was on his way out once again. He was going to spend some more time with his girlfriend.
“Hey Brandon…” Sean wondered, as he looked up to his big brother, who was standing by the front door. “Tell me, where did you get this amulet? Who gave it to you?”
“I got it last night at the opera” Brandon explained. “One of the actors threw it right at us, and I happened to be the one who caught it!”
“Did you see anybody else there, who you know?” Sean asked him.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, our neighbors were there as well!”
“Who? You mean, Mitch?” Sean wondered.
“Yeah, he was there with his girlfriend…” the basketball player responded. “But I guess he didn’t like it so much…”
“Why not?”
“He walked out during the Wizard’s scene… Everybody saw it, too… He accidentally knocked over some little girl’s drink, and it was very disturbing…” Brandon continued.
“A wizard? What wizard?”
“There is a guy who played the part of a wizard. As a matter of fact, he was the same guy who tossed the amulet into the crowd!” Brandon pondered.
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, it was during his part that Mitch actually got up and walked out! That was so embarrassing… Everybody stared at him… And you could just tell that the guy who played the wizard was absolutely furious at Mitch for walking out during his part!” Brandon chuckled. “But don’t tell Mitch that I told you this, okay?”
“Well, was the wizard the kind of guy who would try to get revenge on you if you were to make him angry?” Sean questioned.
“Yeah… He looked like the type of guy who would do that… Why do you want to know all these things?” the taller brother wondered.
“I was wearing the amulet around my neck when Mitch jogged by me this morning. And I wondered if Mitch could jog back, and he immediately did! It was almost as if…” Sean thought out loud, while staring at the sky.
“As if… What?”
“I’m not sure… I need to test this out, but it seems like this amulet has some kind of effect on Mitch…” Sean said quietly, while staring at the small object, that he was holding in his hand. “What is an amulet supposed to do? What is it for?”
“Well…” Brandon rolled his eyes while he thought about it for a moment. “An amulet is some kind of a good luck charm. It’s supposed to protect you from evil or from illness, and it’s supposed to bring luck to the one who wears it, I guess. It’s usually a talisman, a semi-precious stone or a piece of jewelry, as is in your case.”
“Does an amulet carry any kind of magical powers?” Sean wondered.
“I don’t know… It might! I think the Egyptians were among the first to create amulets from ceramic, copper, silver or gold, and they placed them over the mummies in order to protect them from evil while they embarked on their journey to the afterlife. I learned that in my ancient history class last semester!” Brandon said proudly.
“Gosh, bro…” Sean chuckled. “At least, I’m happy to see that you are learning something in college…”
“Hey, don’t get too smart with me, little bro…” Brandon laughed, as he opened the door. “I’m going out now, so I’ll catch you later, dude…”
Sean just stared at his big brother, until Brandon walked out and shut the door. Then he took the amulet off, as he walked into his bedroom. He owned another necklace, which was made of gold. It fit nice and snug around his neck, and since it was made of metal, it was hard to remove from his neck. He attached the amulet to the necklace, by sliding a small, metal ring through one of the thin chains which made up the gold necklace. Then he placed the necklace around his neck and closed the small clip, which held the two ends of the necklace together.
“There, nobody is going to take my amulet away from me…” he said with an evil grin, as he looked at his reflection in the mirror in the bathroom. “I’m keeping it!”
Sean then grabbed his CDROM which had an encyclopedia on it, and he looked up the meaning of an amulet. He was fascinated by what he had found, especially about the part where amulets were used as good luck charms for the wearers. Elsewhere, it explained that people, who wore amulets, would receive special powers or abilities. Some would have the senses of certain types of animals, even!
“There is something strange about this amulet and Mitch, my next door neighbor. If I were a real wizard, I would place some sort of curse on Mitch, if he walked out in the middle of my act!” he pondered. “I need to find out what this amulet is capable of…”
Sean grabbed hold of the amulet with his right hand, as he whispered something to himself, while he was sitting at his desk in the bedroom.
“Show me what Mitch is doing right now…”
Suddenly, Sean had a vision. While he still had his eyes closed, he saw Mitch, sitting at the dining table in his house, eating a slice of pepperoni pizza for lunch.
Sean quickly opened his eyes, got up, and walked towards the window. He had just spotted the car, with a sign that belonged to one of the pizza delivery companies on the roof, as it just turned the corner at the end of the street.
As soon as Sean closed his eyes, the strange vision returned to him, and he saw and heard everything that Mitch was doing!
“This is so cool!” he said to himself. “I wonder if Mitch could hear me if I called out his name in my thoughts?”
Mitch was just getting down to the hard crust of his first slice of pepperoni pizza, when he suddenly looked up.
“Sean?” he asked out loud.
Mitch stood up and walked towards the back door to the house. When he saw that there was nobody there, he walked to the front door. He opened the door and closed it, when he saw that there was nobody there. Then he walked over to the curtains in the living room, and peered out the window as he pushed one of the curtains aside.
“I must be hearing things…” he thought to himself. “I thought I heard Sean call my name…”
In the meantime, Sean realized that the amulet gave him the strange ability to see and hear everything that Mitch was doing, saying and thinking.
“Mitch should be really thirsty right now…” Sean whispered, as he sat there, with his eyes closed.
Just when he said that, Mitch was overcome with a tremendous thirst. He grabbed his plastic cup, which was filled with cold soda, and he drank everything in one big gulp!
“Mitch is gonna burp really loud right now…” Sean chuckled, as he was watching everything that was going on with his next door neighbor.
Right at that moment, Mitch felt a large bubble of air coming up from his belly. He then opened his mouth slightly, as he suddenly had the urge to let out one long and very loud belch! It was so loud, that Sean was actually able to hear it!
“That was awesome!” Sean cheered out loud. He was now at the point where he wanted to see the effects of the amulet on Mitch with his very own eyes.
“Put the pizza away and then come over to my house…” Sean instructed.
Immediately, Mitch was overcome with the urge to close the pizza box and to store it in the refrigerator, to walk out the front door, and to run over to Sean’s house. Mitch opened the front door and ran up the stairs. He walked right into Sean’s bedroom, and stared at the teenage boy with a deep look of confusion on his face.
“I’m sorry, Sean…” Mitch stuttered. “I have no idea why I’m here…”
“I know why you’re here…” the teen replied, showing an evil grin on his face. “I made you come here! You have to do everything I say…”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you just have a pizza? And, didn’t you just drink an entire cup of soda in one big gulp? Didn’t you just burp out loud? I’m the one who made you do these things…” Sean laughed.
“What?!?!” Mitch shouted at the boy, who was staring at him with an evil grin on his face.
“Now, maybe I can make you a little younger? Like… twelve years old?” Sean chuckled.
Immediately Mitch felt something very strange happening to his body. His skin started to tingle like crazy. As he stared at Sean, he noticed that the boy appeared to be growing taller… Or was he actually shrinking?
“Hey! What’s going on here?” Mitch wondered, as panic began to set in.
Mitch frantically looked down at his body and gasped when he realized that his shorts were feeling much too loose and his shirt was getting too big. His underwear was sitting very loose, as his body continued to regress. The hair on his chest suddenly disappeared, as well as the hair under his arms, and on his groin.
“What… WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!???” Mitch shouted, as he grabbed hold of his shorts, which began to fall from his decreased waist.
“I’m tired of looking up to you as a man, so I want you to be my age for awhile!” Sean chuckled, as he continued to stare at the young man, who now started to look more like a teenager than an adult.
Mitch passed his hands over his chest and over his chin. His mouth dropped wide open, when he realized that all his hair had disappeared. His arms and legs were now much shorter and thinner, his skin was soft and smooth, without a wisp of hair anywhere!
“BUT… WHY? HOW?” Mitch shouted, and he immediately felt surprised when he noted how his voice had changed. His voice was higher, and he now sounded like a preteen himself!
“As long as I wear this amulet, I have complete control over your body. I can make you do whatever I want, and I can change you into just about anything!” Sean laughed, as the 22-year-old man who was now standing before him, was looking not a day older than a twelve year-old boy.
“ARE YOU CRAZY! GIVE ME THAT AMULET!!” Mitch shouted! He tried to grab the amulet, which was hanging from Sean’s necklace, but Sean took a step back. Mitch immediately grabbed his shorts, which had fallen off of him.
“You’d better change into some smaller clothes, big guy…” Sean chuckled. “Those are now way too big for you!”
“I’m gonna get you for this…” Mitch said in a threatening tone of voice. He had to use at least one hand to hold his shorts up, in order to keep them from falling on the street. His shoes were too big, and he had to step out of them as well.
“I see that you have your hands full, little Mitch!” Sean teased. “Better go change into something… smaller?”
Mitch, as a 12 year-old boy, turned around and stumbled into the house, while holding up his oversized shorts with one hand, while carrying his huge running shoes in the other. As soon as he got into the house, he slammed the door, and ran into his bedroom.
He immediately threw all the large clothes off and ran over to the mirror, which was hanging from the wall in the bathroom. His mouth dropped wide open, when he realized that he had indeed regressed back and he has become a 12 year-old boy.
“Oh my God… What am I gonna do now?” he whispered, as he passed his hands over his smooth cheeks, lips, and chin.
“You’re gonna have some FUN… with ME!” he heard Sean’s voice ringing in his ears.
“No… No!... NOOOO!!” Mitch screamed, as he turned around. “You can’t do this to me! YOU CAN’T TAKE MY LIFE AWAY FROM ME!!!!!” His body began to shake, as his knees suddenly gave in, while he was overwhelmed with grief. Mitch fell on his knees, with his forehead touching the floor. “CHANGE ME BACK… PLEASE!! CHANGE ME BACK!!! DON’T DO THIS TO ME!! WHY ME? WHAT HAVE I DONE TO YOU??”
“Stop crying, Mitch…” the teenager’s voice said. “I will change you back. Just enjoy the ride, for the time being, okay? Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. I’m just gonna have some fun with you…”
Mitch slowly raised his teary-eyed head off the ground, as he stared before him.
“I’M SO SORRY I RAN OUT OF YOUR SHOW! I DIDN’T MEAN TO MESS UP YOUR ACT DURING THE OPERA! DON’T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS… PLEASE, DON’T DO THIS TO ME!!!” Mitch sobbed out loud. He began to cry as his body fell down on the floor.
After a few minutes, he heard the front door open and slam shut. Just as footsteps were quickly coming up the stairs, Mitch decided to see who it was. When he slowly sat up, with only his knees and his toes touching the carpet, he noticed that the boy was standing before him.
“I’ll make a deal with you…” Sean said calmly.
Mitch slowly stood up. He was completely naked, so he grabbed the towel in the bathroom and tied it around his small waist, before he walked back in his bedroom in order to face the other kid.
Both boys were staring at each other in silence. Sean was actually a little taller than Mitch, and he was completely in awe of the amulet’s power. Mitch, on the other hand, realized that it was best for him to play along right now, and to see what Sean had in mind for him.
“What do you want from me?” Mitch asked Sean calmly.
“I just want to be your friend, Mitch…” Sean shrugged. “You always ignored me and you never even looked at me when we would see each other on the street. I will grow you back under one condition…”
“What? You want money?” Mitch wondered out loud.
“No… I want to be able to change you back anytime I want to! And I want to be able to change you into anything I want, and I want to be able to make you do whatever I say! I promise you that I won’t hurt you, as long as you cooperate with me. Is it a deal?” Sean explained.
“When are you gonna change me back?” Mitch asked the teen.
“As soon as we shake hands…” Sean smiled, as he extended his right hand.
Mitch hesitated a little bit, and then he finally extended his right hand as well. As soon as they shook hands, Mitch felt that same tingling sensation over him, that he felt when he started to regress the first time.
“I gotta go now… But I’ll always be in touch with you, Mitch! Let’s get together and have some fun tomorrow! See ya…” Sean said, as he turned around, ran down the stairs, and then walked out the door.
Mitch just looked around his room, wondering what was going to happen next, when it dawned on him that the room appeared to be shrinking.
What a sigh of relief, at least Sean kept his word. But what would Sean do to him the following day? What would happen if Karissa found out? When would Sean change him again? Was Sean able to see, hear, and feel everything he saw, heard or felt as well?
All these questions raced through his mind. After a few moments, things seemed to be normal again.
A quick run into the bathroom confirmed what he was feeling. He was his old self again. He was 22 years-old again. But, how could he live a normal life, if his body was in complete control of a thirteen year-old boy, who possessed a magic amulet?
As he turned towards the bed, and slowly started to dress in his own clothes, he heard the boy’s voice ringing in his ears.
“Don’t worry, Mitch… I’ll be nice to you… We’re just gonna have some fun times together…” Sean’s voice boomed in his head. “Just turn on the TV and relax…”
Mitch slowly walked down the stairs, wondering how Sean knew that he liked to watch TV in the afternoon. Then it dawned on him. His body, mind, and soul were now being shared with this boy, who had an amulet around his neck. What could happen next?