I didn’t know why the things the men did in this world continued to surprise and confuse me.

“Excuse me?” I stammered.

He opened his arms wide in welcome.

“My dear Amelia! You are beautiful! Your creation is something to behold! I have been waiting such a long time to meet you! You have no idea how patiently I waited for your arrival at my beloved temple!”

I started backing away and waving my hands frantically, “Wait, wait, wait! Chad, this isn’t funny anymore! Frankly, it wasn’t funny when it started. Roll your eyes back to the front of your head and let’s get out of here!”

Suddenly, Chad vanished, a wisp of smoke all that remained where he once stood. Each of us spun our heads around, searching for where he might have gone.

This had to have been a trick. Right?

Suddenly, I felt something pinch my ass!

“Eeek!” I spun around to see nothing there, just more wisps of smoke.

I wrapped my arm around my chest, fearful of another assault, my head on a swivel.

“Satisfied yet?”

Chad reappeared at Obarith’s statue, lounging across one of the bare feet, head propped up on a fist and admiring the nails on his other hand.

I scowled at him. “Alright, you proved your point. Whoever you are, you obviously aren’t Chad. Bring him back! Now!”

The body of Chad sighed at me. “I already told you who inhabits this form now.” He looked up at me with a devious grin. “Would it help if I told you the private thoughts he has about you? The glances he sneaks your way when he thinks you’re not looking?”

My ears burned, “Pretty sure that stuff is his business. Don’t you have any respect for someone else’s privacy?!”

He simply waved his hand in front of a wide-open mouth with the gesture of an exaggeratedly bored yawn, “We could move this conversation along so much smoother if you would just accept me.”

He opened his eyes again and took us all in, the eyes still without any color, only now they glowed brightly.

Convinced it was, indeed, Obarith, the head God on campus, Dorian, Ash, and Max all fell to the ground in reverence, foreheads pressed against the temple floor as forcefully as possible.

I stayed put. I had already bowed to one asshole today. God or no, that check had already been cashed.

Obarith stood up and walked over to me.

“Well, that’s mostly better.” He started to circle me and look me up and down. “Usually, women know their place around me.” He stopped once he was back in front of me and added, “The Goddess certainly did.”

I bit my tongue. Everyone was trying to push my buttons today. Was this a test to see how far I could be pushed?

“But you are my daughter, so I will allow the insolence.” he waved off the perceived insult.

At that, I spoke up, “Listen, I don’t know who you think you are to me, but you are not my father. Neither my father back home, nor my father purely due to the Goddess’ hand in my summoning and physical form!”

He gave an exasperated sigh, “But you don’t seem to understand, Amelia! The ability for the Goddess to accomplish what she did was only due to my grace! One could almost claim you are here at my behest as well!”

His eyes seemed to glimmer a little brighter, “But I will not. I have grander schemes in motion and cannot be bothered with whatever quest she desires you for. You are here because I allow it, and because I humor my beloved wife.”

My left fist was a blur as I smashed it into his smug face.

I heard a crunching sound on impact and Obarith’s body flew backward and landed on his ass, bouncing and skidding a bit after the landing.

I probably broke something in Chad’s face. Ash would have to work on that later.

He sat there, cradling the front of his head in his hands.

“What the hell? Who hit— Amelia!” His eyes the brilliant blue again, I realized Obarith had left his body right before impact and had avoided the brunt of my frustrations.

His body once again his own, Chad was bleeding profusely from his nose. I honestly felt horrible about it. He had gotten smacked around a lot today, and I had just unwittingly added to it. He hadn’t even deserved it this time.

But there wasn’t time to dwell on that now. Where was Obarith?

I spun to the three boys still bent over on the floor. They had at least looked up to observe the commotion, but none of their eyes had lost their color. He hadn’t possessed them.

Yet.

Suddenly there was the sound of a slow clapping. I turned and saw a shadowed mass appear from behind one of the statue’s legs. It stepped out from the shadows, and I saw the new form Obarith had taken.

He was a shorter, unimposing slender figure. He was wearing a modern blue business suit and tie. There were thick rimmed glasses perched on his nose and black hair in a smart, neat comb over. His brown eyes were tired but kind as they looked at me.

There was something familiar about this man.

“….Dad?”

The figure chuckled and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“No, this is not the human you consider your real father. Merely a facsimile I chose to possibly elicit better responses from you.”

He nodded at Chad, still crumpled on the floor and tending to his broken nose. “You both harbor some unresolved issues for one another.” Obarith waggled my father’s eyebrows at me. “You should probably do something more productive about that.”

That was the last straw.

“Why does everyone keep insisting Chad and I settle down and make with the babies? Specifically, me settling down? Don’t you people have lives? A country, world, or universe to run? My body and what I do with it shouldn’t honestly be nearly this high on anyone’s priorities!”

I stabbed an angry finger at Obarith, “And this is the only warning I’m going to give: get out of my father’s body!” I seethed.

He ignored the threat and instead addressed my previous question, “But just think of the genetic possibilities! The offspring of a pairing such as yourself and the next heir to the Crown? Mating with a human that contains my glorious line within the strain of humanity!” He raised his hands to the air for emphasis on the scope of his vision.

“You could be the mother of a whole new legacy for your race! You will be that mother! If you care at all for your children and the future of humanity, why wouldn’t you pair with a specimen as genetically perfect and magnificent as that one?”

He gestured at Chad still on the floor, currently a poor depiction of the perfect picture he was attempting to paint. Ash had decided “to hell with it” and had gotten up off his knees and was tending to Chad’s face.

I stalked towards Obarith. “I’m still stuck on the part where you ignored my previous threat. I thought I made it perfectly clear that it wasn’t a request! Leave that form!” I was clinching my fists so tightly, I could feel my nails cutting into the skin of my palms.

I stomped towards him. “Next time you won’t be fast enough, and you’ll experience a woman laying hands on you in a way that is not at all pleasant!”

Obarith didn’t flinch nor back away. He just studied me as I approached. He was confident he could call my bluff. Unfortunately, for him, I had backed down too many times today. I was going to win our game of chicken.

I grabbed him by the lapels of his suit jacket and jostled him hard.

I clenched my teeth, “Get. Out.”

He smiled and raised his hands in mock surrender. “Alright, alright. How could I say ‘no’ to that face?”

His features slowly started to blur together and melt away as the shape in front of me changed. His form filled in and his shoulders became more rigid. He gained some muscle mass, where before the shape of my father had him slim and trim in a nondescript way. His jawline pushed out, as if an artist had erased what was there previously and drew it back in sharply and with purpose. Some thin, attractive facial hair grew in on the chin and jawline and faded up into his sideburns. His hair changed from the black to a coffee brown, swept back like someone was constantly sliding a hand through it. The glasses faded away and his eyes took on the Chaddington blue, but appeared to have electricity rumbling through them, barely containing his power within.

His new form now complete, he smiled softly which disarmed me for a moment.

“Better?”

I glanced up at the statue and then back down at the figure still clenched in my fists. His clothes had remained modern, but he had lost the sport coat and was now wearing grey pinstripe pants and a vest, a black tie around his neck with a burgundy-colored button up shirt. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing thick and powerful arms.

I released him and stepped back.

“Why don’t you look like, well, that?” I gestured up.

He looked back up at the statue, his acknowledged vanity captured in marble.

“Times change. Keeping the same look for thousands of years is boring.” He looked back to me, “Besides, I figured this is a look you would be more comfortable with. A style from your home.” He raised an eyebrow, “A home you long to return to?”

I tried to come up with a quick comeback, but words failed me. Dorian and Max had sat up but remained on their knees on the ground. Chad and Ash were only partially invested in his present state and instead were also watching my conversation with Obarith intently.

“So, my dear Amelia. What to do with you?”

I found my voice again, “Pardon?”

He inhaled deeply, “There is so much conflict within you, my child. You want so many things. To help these people, yet to return to your home. To be powerful, and yet to not be faced with the burden of responsibility and true choice!” He brought an open hand up in front of me and then clinched it shut tightly.

“You positively reek of self-doubt. You question everything you do.” He waved at the boys, who had all finally stood. “They squabble and fight for your affection and, rather than embrace the attention like your mind screams for you to do, you cower like a turtle in it’s shell. Like you have done your whole life, you take your true emotions, and you box them away!”

He leaned close and loomed over me, close enough that I could have smelled him, if he had any smell at all. He had a predatory look about him as he sniffed the air between us.

“Fear. Despite all of the gifts you have been inexplicably given, all of the untapped raw power within, you still let fear control you. I don’t know exactly what task my wife has laid before you, but it frightens you down to your core. You should take up my suggestion for Man’s best interest instead. The Goddess’ plans for humanity are obviously too large and involved for someone so insecure as you.”

He finally leaned back and stared at me, his arms crossed, a sly satisfactory smile on his face. I felt naked under his gaze. There was nothing I could hide from him.

He was right. This despicable creature was right.

“I know I’m right. It’s part of what being omnipotent means!” he said.

I gave him a hard look.

“Get out of my head!”

I rested my hands on my hips, “We already had the discussion about other people’s privacy. Or was that another point in our conversation where you chose to ignore me?”

To emphasize that claim, he started to circle me again and continued his previous comments.

“You do have passion, you just don’t know how to properly focus on it. Instead, you are trapped on what you have left behind. You long, so much, to go back home. You cling so desperately to those memories, that you have attempted to rip pieces of it here to this world.”

He was in front of me again, and he started to tick off items with his fingers, “Your sword, your homesick stories to your friends.” He grinned slyly, “My appearance as your father was merely spawned from your own thoughts!” He gestured to himself, “My appearance now!”

He sighed and crossed his arms again, “If you are ever to be able to fulfill my greater vision of humanity, you must remove these distractions from yourself!”

With that, he vanished into thin air again. I started frantically looking for him, not wishing to be caught off guard by another close encounter. Instead, all that was heard was voice, almost like a whisper.

“There is so much potential in you, my daughter. And I am curious to see what choices you make with it. But before that, you must find the will to use it.”

The voice was all around us. The boys were sweating hard, a mixture of awe and terror on their faces. This entire visit had made them extremely uncomfortable. They had been speechless since Obarith’s appearance. I wondered if they had ever seen their God before. Surely Ash hadn’t, but the rest? If he really did reside here, it’s possible Chad and Max had. But even if they did, I was sure this interaction was completely out of the ordinary. My first experience with the Goddess hadn’t been anything close to this. As I dwelled on all that Obarith had done and said, I couldn’t help it. Everything he had said was true.

I was filled with fear.

I had seen just a glimpse of his power and believed he could do anything. My aggressiveness earlier hadn’t been confidence, merely instinctual. I had been running on rage when I had reacted with violence towards this powerful deity. He could have killed me where I stood, had he chosen. I smiled for a moment in my mind. Maybe Chad and I had more in common after all.

“I seeeeeeeee yooooouuu!”

Obarith’s voice floated through the still air.

“There you are! For one filled with so much uncertainty, the moments when your confidence pokes through are surprising!”

There was a disturbing chuckle.

“While it is delightful sharing such a tantalizing secret that only you and I are privy to, let us lay the truth bare! It’s time to show the rest of the world who you truly are!” He paused for a moment before bellowing out one last word.

“Amy!”

I felt the touch of a finger press and linger in the center of my forehead. Goddess, it burned! I let out a shriek of agony and grasped my face with my hands!

“AAAAAAAAUGHHHH!”

I collapsed, shaking on the floor. At the focal point of the pressure pushing in on my forehead, I felt his power press through my skin, into my now throbbing skull. An eternity passed and I felt his touch leave my face. The burning sensation remained for a time before ebbing away slowly. I panted and gasped heavily, waiting for it to stop. Eventually, the burning searing pain ceased and all that remained from Obarith’s touch was the throbbing headache. I slowly slipped my hands away from my face and was not ready for what I saw next.

Sweatpants.

Black, dirty, oversized, sweatpants.

I sat up, pulled my arms away from my body, and stared at it in bewilderment. Gone were the curves that I had gotten used to. That I had slowly begun to appreciate. My long and shapely legs. My hips. My boobs! I reached up frantically… my hair.

My Earthly form had been restored. I was no longer the tall and confident Amelia.

I was again short, basic, and bland.

Amy.

I was wearing my oversized grey hoodie I always wore back home, zipped up to hide a body that wasn’t impressive to begin with. A body that didn’t inspire me any confidence to show it off. My black hair had returned in my preferred style, short and straight, barely touching my neckline. Oversized glasses now framed my round face, my hazel eyes adjusting to wearing them again.

I was me again.

A part of me should have been excited, I thought. But instead, I was filled with dread. Was this still really who I was inside? Who I had always been? Was Amelia just the persona I had shown and shared with the people of Eitania, in those brief moments, because I was too afraid to let them see my real self? A true self who was powerless? Which one was real?

Amelia, or Amy?

I looked up at the boys, all of them frozen in terror.

What would I say? What could I say?

“….Hi…?”