Cam felt himself waking up but he refused to open his eyes.
It was all a dream,
he thought.
I was working on my book and then I must have passed out and had the strangest dream of all time. I imagined that some weird drawing turned my eyes purple and somehow gave me the ability to seduce my hot neighbour.
Cam opened his eyes and sat up. He was in his bed and he was naked. Lisa's panties were on the floor. The lingering scent of her coupled with the semi-stale smell of sex still hung in the air. Cam briefly considered jumping for joy. So he hadn't imagined it after all. Better still, Lisa's thuggish boyfriend hadn't come over and kicked his head in. And the police hadn't knocked on his door to arrest him. This meant that the command he'd given her to forget everything that happened had worked. How interesting.
He glanced at the time on his phone. It was 9 am, which meant that he had slept for roughly twelve hours. A lot longer than he usually did. It also meant that he had gone almost 18 hours without eating anything. Coincidentally, his stomach chose that moment to elicit a loud rumble of complaint. Cam quickly got dressed and made himself a large bowl of cereal. As he went to brush his teeth he glanced in the mirror and frowned. His eyes weren't purple anymore. They had assumed their usual brown colour again. Did that mean his powers were gone? He scrambled to pick up the book with the strange drawings and frantically turned the pages until he found the one with the purple eyes. He stared at it intently, hoping to feel that familiar burning in his eyes again. Nothing happened.
"Shit," he cursed and threw the book into a corner.
He'd lost it. He'd lost the damn superpowers.
Or had he?
Cam sat in his chair and concentrated. Something was still different. There was a feeling at the back of his head. Like a muscle he'd never used before. Cam frowned as he tried to locate that muscle, to remember what he'd felt yesterday. And then something
snapped
in his mind and the familiar burning sensation in his eyes returned. Cam scrambled to the mirror.
"Yes!" he exclaimed and pumped his fist in the air.
The irises in his eyes had turned from brown to purple and glowed ever so slightly. His powers were back. And now that he knew how to turn them on, he only had to discover if he could shut them off as well. He concentrated for a moment and then watched in awe as his eyes reverted back to their normal colour and the burning disappeared.
All right,
he thought.
Let's see if everything works the same as yesterday.
Almost without thinking, Cam walked out the door and headed straight for Lisa's apartment. He took a deep breath and knocked. Nothing happened. No sound came from inside. Then he remembered that Lisa worked as a waitress and sometimes had shifts on Sundays.
Damn.
As Cam wondered what to do now, a thought occurred to him. Did his power work on other people as well? Or was there some weird rule that it only worked on people he had a crush on?
Only one way to find out,
he thought.
Cam strode to his other neighbour's apartment and knocked. Mr LaSalle was a software engineer in his forties. He lived alone and seemed like a nice bloke. When Cam had first moved in, Mr LaSalle had invited him in for coffee and given him some useful advice on the best restaurants in Portland. Cam heard the man moving around in his apartment. After he knocked he heard steps coming towards the door. Just before it opened he took a deep breath and summoned his power. Now that he knew how to do it, it took him a lot less time before the familiar burning sensation started in his eyes. The door swung open and Mr LaSalle appeared with a friendly smile on his face.
"Hey Cam, how's itβuhhhhh..."
As soon as Mr LaSalle made eye contact he stuttered to a halt and the same blank expression that Lisa had worn appeared on his face.
Ok then,
Cam thought.
I guess it works on everyone. But just to be sure...