“For real?” She asked. Having it hard to
believe he had just started making a conversation on that.
“Yeah, for real.” He replied. Meaning that he
wasn´t kidding.
“Don´t you think that´s a bit… superficial?”
The lady asked.
Right now, we´re at a coffee shop. A place to
chill, and drink some coffee. Or maybe, to work on something while you´re out
of your place. Or, for some, a place to have a casual date. And what a better
idea for that than a blind date?
Well, it´s not quite a blind date, in fact,
he´s seen this lady before. Not personally, but on her profile. Her name´s Aurora.
A pretty lady, with blue eyes that shine, so clear that they can almost look
through you. Her skin´s pale and her hair´s of a raven color. Oh, and she
stands at an outstanding 6´3”. With a thin, yet voluptuous, body.
Now, the
man in front of her, he´s Kyle. The average guy. Standing at 5´11”, therefore, Aurora´s
an amazon! Compared to him, and other men.
Now, what´s the deal? Well, each has a profile
on this dating app. They matched and, well, let´s just say this isn´t going as
planned. At least not as he planned.
Kyle´s a man on his twenties, 26-years-old to
be precise. And a bit tired of being single. He created a profile about two
years ago, since dating wasn’t his forte. He´s a bit… picky when it comes to
women. Not too much, but height´s one of his red flags. He cannot date women
taller than him. Which makes women of six-feet-tall, or more, out of the list.
Or even women his height.
As he thinks, heels exist, and if they are the
same height, well… he´s about to explain it right now.
“Superficial? No, I´m just… realistic. Let´s
say… you wore heels. Imagine, a woman like you, with heels? You´d be like…
seven-feet-tall!” He said.
Aurora wasn´t mad, or upset. Not even trying to
argue with him. Right now, she was just having fun with the man. Smiling, since
she knows it´s all under control. Her control. But he´ll be soon to know.
“I wouldn´t be that tall. It would also depend
on the heel. Say… a pair of, for me, regular high heels, of about 4-inch tall.
Should make me… 6´7”.” She said, landing a punch on him right where she wanted.
His ego. His frail, male ego.
“Shit! 6´7”? That´s… like a whole foot taller
than me!” Yeah, Kyle´s insecure when it comes to height. And exaggerating, it´s
not a whole foot, it´s about eight-inches. But this, his insecurity about
height, that´s something she likes… but not for the reasons you might think.
“So? Women can be taller than men. There´s no
problem on that. If my anatomy´s taller, larger than yours, then that´s just
natural.” She said.
“Sure, it´s natural. And there´s no problem on
that. However… if we were to date… I mean, don´t get me wrong, but I don´t want
to date a woman that´s like… a full head taller, you know. No offense.”
“Well, for someone who doesn´t want to be
offensive, you seem to talk about tall women as if they were an issue.” She
said.
“What? No. No, I just, all I´m saying is, a
tall woman should not date a man shorter. Or, a short man should not date a
taller woman. From my point of view, men should be taller, at least when we´re
talking about couples.” He´s got some strong arguments, at least strong
according to him.
“So, how about men who prefer taller women?
I´ve seen guys who are like… 5´7”, and they are dating 6´ women. Should that
not be allowed?” The main difference amongst a couple is their height, it´s not
like everyone´s dating someone who´s as tall as they are.
“Well, no but… I mean, based on this particular
scenario. You and me, I… how tall are you, exactly?” He asked, just to make
some sort of point.
“I´m 6´3” on my bare feet.” She replied.
“I´m 5´11”, so, between you and I, there´s
about… four inches, four whole inches in height difference. Don´t you think
that´s like… a lot?”
“Not at all.” She said. Aurora had an idea, a
bit naughty, but he´s soon to confirm if it´s too naughty or just exactly what
he needs.
Kyle knew this wasn´t going anywhere. She´s not
his type, he knew it since they first met, outside the shop, and as soon as he
learned she was looming above him, it was just a matter of time before the date
was over. A short matter of time.
Aurora´s not a bad lady. She´s kind, she´s
pretty, smart. Easy to talk to. But the thing is… she´s an amazon!
Therefore, his plan was to look for a way out.
But she was so nice. It´s a shame he makes no exception to this one rule. NO
TALL GIRLS. And it´s also a shame the app doesn´t allow you to add your height
on it.
“Listen, Aurora. You´re nice and, I know you´re
a great person but… I don´t think this is going to work…” He started, about to
use the cheesy “it´s not you, but me…”.
“I know.” She said, not regretting anything, or
appearing to be sad at all.
“Uhm… you…?” He started, but she´s going to
finish.
“I knew you were afraid of my height the second
you saw I was tall. I would´ve been fine if you were a bit intimidated, but
this! It´s as if you´re scared! What? Afraid people think you´re short? Or, are
you just upset because you didn´t reach the six-foot-mark? Whatever that is,
let me tell you something, that´s VERY superficial. And that´s a shame, because
I thought you were cute.” Aurora stated.
“Yeah, that´s also one of the things… if you
weren´t so much taller, instead of cute, you would´ve said handsome…”
“Ugh, you know what. Maybe it´s time for you to
learn a lesson. Because, right now, I´m not the problem. It´s YOU.” Lesson?
What kind of lesson?
“Listen, I don´t think you should make such a
big deal here. I think we should both go our own ways. You know…” Was she about
to beat him up or something? Or what kind of lesson? Yelling, maybe? She
doesn´t seem as the kind of woman who´ll make such a fuss, but he doesn´t know
her.
In fact, he doesn´t know her. At all, else, he
would know Aurora´s someone special. Someone with power, magical powers…
“Oh, don´t worry, no one will know. No one but
you, and me. I have something special in mind for you. For a man so fixed in
the height of a woman. I know what you think, that your first thought about me
was that I was a giraffe! And all because I was just taller than you. Now, how
about we put a bit of a spell on it…” She was about to put a spell on him.
Which is something he doesn´t believe in.
“Spell? Come on, are you kidding me? Only
because I said you and I wouldn´t work?” In his mind, he wonders, why does
women need to overreact when they are rejected? But this wasn´t the case.
Kyle didn´t trust her words, what was she going
to do? Get a voodoo doll and start stabbing it with needles? Get some of his
hair and make a potion? Use a picture or something. What?
Kyle doesn´t believe in any of those things.
However, when her blue eyes suddenly shined. A beam of light making a tour
around her pupil, he did swallow. That wasn´t so normal. Maybe there was an
explanation, right? The lights out there. Maybe someone flashed as they took a
picture. Her eyes can´t just… shine, right?
“Kyle, from now on, every time you think on a
woman´s height, there will be consequences. So, I´d be more careful if I was
you. You wouldn´t want to start arguing about height again…” she warned him. And
in that warning, there were no lies.
Aurora then stood up, and swaying her sensuous
hips, she walked away. Leaving the man a bit frightened.
Kyle felt something weird on him. Or was it
just that he was suddenly conscious about his body? When everything´s fine, you
feel amazing! But when something´s off, even the wind blowing through your body
sends some mixed signals to your brain.
As if you were paranoid about getting sick. The
thing is, will he? Should he be worried about what she said? Maybe it was some
sort of warning, as if she was saying this will be a big problem to him in the
future.
“I… I´m glad we didn´t order anything…” He said
after he came back to his senses. Still with a few thoughts on what she said,
but getting back to his reality.
What could she possibly have done? There´s no
way it´s something real. At the end of the day, he´ll get back to his
apartment. Reheat something for dinner, and watch TV until he feels tired
enough to sleep. And then, he´s got work to do tomorrow.
Whatever that lady had said, it won´t interfere
with his life. He´s got work to do, places to be. Stuff he needs to get done.
Bills to pay, people to talk to. He´s got a life on his own, and this woman´s
words, they don´t mean a thing.
“Yeah, sure, as if she can cast a spell on me…”
Well, the thing is… she can. And he´ll be soon to see…
Kyle did as it was said. He got out of the
coffee shop. Spend a bit more time downtown. Checked some messages on his
phone. Hopped on a bus back to his apartment. Once there, he took a shower.
Still, while he was showering, he made sure to
check on his body. Was he feeling ill? Or just paranoid about what she said?
There´s no way she can do something, right?
“Don´t worry. You didn´t eat, or drink,
anything there. There´s no way she had poisoned you. Not even a goodbye kiss…
you´re fine.” He reassured to himself.
Even if he didn´t believe anything she said was
real, he was still concerned. What if this woman was crazy? Can she actually do
something to him?
Well, she doesn´t know where he lives. He´s
sure she didn’t follow him home. Plus, the app doesn´t share any of that
information, so he´s safe.
The thing is, what she said, is done.
Later that night, after tiring himself with TV,
he went to bed. But the real deal started when he was asleep. Deeply asleep.
Everything was fine, regular. His body was just
getting the rest he needed before starting a new day. But then, he heard
something.
He had nothing in mind, but he could hear a
voice, a female voice. One that was creeping his mind. A voice that said:
“From now on, every time height comes up in one
of your conversations. There will be a change. Whether you end up loosing
height, or the other person ends up gaining height. It will all depend on what
they think. If I were you, I´d be careful with that…” and so, he woke up, in
the middle of the night.
His body was covered in sweat. Was that real?
That felt real? He rapidly turned on the lights, to make sure no one was there.
Eventually, he went back to sleep, ignoring what will come tomorrow…
Don´t think Kyle´s a deuce, he´s an average
guy. Kind, respectful, responsible. However, when it comes to height… that´s
kind of a big deal to him.
Could it be because he´s 5´11” and not fully
6´? Not quite. There´s something that has always been a bit of… an annoyance to
him. And that´s height. Not his height, but the height of those who are taller.
And by those, we mean women.
Why is that? He´s not even sure. Does he
secretly prefer tall women and he just doesn´t know how to control himself? So,
as a coping mechanism, he immediately rejects them before they reject him? It´s
well known women prefer taller men, at least the majority; therefore, if he´s
not a lot taller than a lady, or worse, if he´s shorter than her, then there´s
a chance he´ll get rejected instantly.
Or maybe, he´s just jealous? Wanting to be, not
just 6´, but actually to be a 6´3” man. Or even above that? Is he frustrated
because he´s not taller? Then, he takes it off on women who are actually
taller?
In the end, when it comes to height, especially
if there´s a tall lady in the room, things get awkward for him…
The next morning, after a not so good sleep,
but still good enough. Kyle went straight for a shower, grabbed whatever for
breakfast and then, he went off to work.
Straight to the office, his second home.
Spending quite some time there. Working on a nine-to-five basis. Everyday, from
Monday to Saturday.
This job doesn´t give him a lot of free time,
but his paycheck´s good enough so… small sacrifices. In the end, when he´s
retired, it will all be worth it. Hopefully…
Kyle went straight to his desk. Not much
interactions on the way there. His mind was still focused on that lady from
yesterday. Now, not so worried about her “spell”, he woke up the same. He even
checked his body again in front of the mirror. Nothing out of normal.
And now that his mind was set on that woman,
well, it was time to think of her, but leaving the weird stuff aside.
“I must admit, when she left… she had a nice
butt.” Well, he didn´t waste a chance to
peek at her. To glimpse at her body as she was standing.
She´s too tall, that´s still a fact. But she´s
the most proportional tall lady he´s met. Her legs were long, shapely, and
thick. Not just long and skinny, no; Aurora´s legs were built in the most
succulent of ways, and so was her beautiful, peach-shaped, butt.
He certainly would´ve loved to get somewhere
with her. But she was too tall for him. Tall to the point where he couldn´t
ignore it.
“6´3” is waaaay too much. However, her boobs
were amazing!” Big, round, firm breasts. Certainly G-cups, at least.
But, even if Aurora had the body of a Venus, a
shape that most men will desire. The deal breaker was her height.
They started chatting, but his discomfort was
visible. After a couple minutes, he had no choice but to stop her and say: “I
don´t think this is gonna work.” And we know what happened next.
Aurora wasn´t upset, just disappointed. But
that was at first. As he continued speaking, he dug and dug a deeper grave.
And, at some point, she decided she wouldn´t let him go that easy. No, Kyle
needed to learn a lesson. Some manners.
He may not have believed what she said, but she
wasn´t lying. He´ll learn, how? You´ll see…
Kyle spent a couple hours going through some
numbers. He had totally forgotten about Aurora, and the date, by then.
After things were done, it was time for a
break. Time to get some coffee. Some caffeine on the system to make sure it
works on it´s optimal conditions. Plus, it should help with the lack of sleep.
When he got to the lunch room, he met his
buddy, Jim. Who was just a tat taller. Standing at six-foot-even.
“Hey Jim, what´s up?” He said.
“Not much, man. How about you? Hey, what
happened with your date last night?” Jim was aware of the date.
“Well… it was… it didn´t work.” He admitted.
“It didn´t? What happened?” Jim asked.
“Well, she was… tall.” Kyle replied, making an
emphasis on the word “tall”.
“Tall? Like…?” Jim was unaware of his issues
with taller women.
“Tall like… too tall. The lady was like 6´3”.
That´s way above the limit.” Kyle said.
“Oh, right, the “limit”. I forgot you had that
issue with women´s height.” Jim said, and then he took a sip of his coffee.
“It´s not an issue. It´s just a rule. More like
a preference. You know, like not dating women who smoke or… women too old.” He
explained.
“Yeah, but, I mean, it´s just a date, you don´t
have to marry her. But at least I know nothing happened.” Jim said. Making Kyle
feel as if he´s the only one with those issues.
In fact, he felt so tired about it that he
actually wanted to make a point. How? Well, getting the opinion of a third
party. In this case, some other ladies at the room.
“Listen, it wasn´t going to work either way.
Women like taller men. Not vice versa. Let me show you.” Jim rolled his eyes,
Kyle really wanted to make a point. And it didn´t matter if he had to bother
some other people to do so.
There were some other women chatting over
there. Both about an average height. 5´5” and 5´7”. Right now, just like at the
coffee shop, Kyle was about to make it all about height. Which seems to be a
very important deal to him.
Kim just followed him to see how this goes. It
wasn´t his idea, and he wasn´t excited to find out, but he wanted to see what
they had to say.
But there´s a thing here, a BIG deal. This is
exactly what Aurora warned him about. One of the things he should be avoiding.
Yet, there he goes. No one even asked him and now, height´s a big deal. AGAIN.
Seriously, he does seem to have an issue with
that. And now, he´s carrying his friend Jim into asking women if they prefer
taller men or shorter men. But, little does he know, this is going to be the
very beginning of his lesson…
“Excuse me, ladies…” Kyle started…
Height, it always seems to be the big deal for
Kyle. Could it be because he´s an inch short from being 6´? Could the fact that
he stands at 5´11”, bother him that much? Let´s face it, being too close, but
still not there, is as bad as being second to winning. To some, it means you´re
the very first looser.
But that´s just a way of thinking, not for
everyone though. However, maybe for Kyle, things are that way. Maybe, just
maybe, it´s worse that things are that way, being so close, and still, one inch
short.
It´s not like losing by a lot, but losing by a
little.
Now, the real deal is, six-feet-tall. That,
according to him, it´s like an unspoken rule. The six-foot-mark sets the
difference between tall men and short men. When thinking of it, he knows that,
as soon as he says he´s 5´11”, women will immediately bring him down all the
way to 5´.
As if they didn´t hear anything after he says
five-feet. But it´s not five-feet-nothing, it´s five-feet-ELEVEN. Which is just
an inch short from the six-foot-mark. Which has always been a big deal. Mostly
to him.
Now, he walked towards those ladies. With a
friendly smile on his face, and about to make a big deal out of nothing. Not an awfully big deal, just to make things
matter more than they should.
Jim followed Kyle, just to make sure he was
close enough to apologize if things got too awkward. As in “We´re sorry to
bother, please pretend nothing happened.” As if saying, my friend´s a bit weird
about this stuff, but he´s harmless.
“Hello, ladies.” Kyle said as he stood right in
front of them. Not too close, just enough.
“Hi.” Both of them said, one wondering what was
he about to say, and the other lady thought he was kind of cute.
Jim stopped right behind him. Making sure he
didn´t get too awkward. And also wondering, what´s the point he´s trying to
make? Only he cares about this kind of stuff, but still, he always seems to
find the way to make it not only his issue, but everyone´s issue.
To bother people with his nonsense…
“So, my friend an I,” Kyle pointed at Jim,
knowing he was right behind him, “we were just talking and, heh, well we don´t
seem to find a commitment. So, we were wondering…” Jim rolled his eyes, as in
saying there´s no “we”, more like “HE”, this is KYLE´S issue. “Do you ladies,
like men who are taller or… not?”
Kyle was polite, the correct body language.
Nice posture, moving his hands as if he was explaining something important.
Eye-contact so that they know he´s not leering at them.
One of them, the one who thought he was cute,
wondered if this was the beginning of a pick-up move, and the other lady just
rose her eyebrow. But both of them stood there, not saying a word for a moment.
“You don´t really have to answer the question,
that´s fine.” Interrupted Jim.
“Oh, don´t worry.” Said the lady who found Kyle
cute. “I guess it´s… a fair question…” she said.
“Well, it´s kind of odd, to be honest. At least
when it comes out of nowhere.” The other lady added.
Kyle smiled, he knows it´s a bit weird to ask,
but he´ll find the way to get out of this, but with his answer. “I´m sorry, I
know this question came out of nowhere. But we were just wondering. That´s all.
If women prefer a taller man, or a shorter man.”
Still, it doesn´t make it any less odd, but he
smiled and looked at both with a look, a charming one.
The first one to speak up was the lady who
found him cute.
“Well, it´s not precisely the height. But, if
that´s your only question. I guess I prefer men who are taller than me.” She
said, with a smooth, sexy tone. Looking at him with some tender eyes.
“Same. Tall men.” The other lady replied,
hoping they will both leave.
“So, taller it is.” Kyle said. Turning back at
Jim with a look that said: “Told you.” But just when he thought he had won, the
sweet lady added.
“But, like I said, height´s not all. For
example… I think you´re cuter than your friend.” She said. Pointing out the
clear fact that Jim was taller.
Kyle turned back, still smiling. It hit him,
stung him almost. Her comment, it wasn´t something he wanted to hear. She was
kind, and her point, the main one, was that he was cute. However… Kyle doesn´t
always take this things as normal as someone else would.
“S-sure! Like… he might be like… a fraction of
an inch taller, but that´s not the main deal, right?” Kyle said.
“A fraction? He looks like… two-inches taller.”
The other lady said.
Jim was sure this was like fueling more his
fire, and they had no idea they shouldn´t do so. Else, he might make this
awkward conversation much longer.
There´s just an inch in height between them.
Kyle´s 5´11”, and Jim´s 6´. But the gap may look wider since Jim´s hair´s a bit
longer, and his hair´s a bit curly. Giving him a bit of a boost. But, the main
boost comes from his shoes. Jim´s shoes have a higher heel, while Kyle´s are
almost flat.
Which is something strange to wear for a man
who´s intending to seem taller.
“Two? Haha. No, ma´am. It´s just ONE inch. You
see, my friend´s six-foot-even. And I´m five-eleven. Which, by making some
basic math, simple arithmetic’s, you´ll see, it´s just an inch.” He was trying
to be persuasive, but the lady just wouldn´t give.
“I do think he´s six-feet-tall. But you… I´d
say you seem more like a 5´10” guy…” it stung him, the comment. But, not like
usual.
This time, Kyle felt different. As if her words
had actually have an effect on him. A real one.
For a second, he could listen to his heart
beat. As if his heart was right on his ears. Both! How could that be? His mouth
went dry for a moment. He couldn´t really speak.
What was happening? He wondered if this was
real. Was it normal? Should he go see the doctor? Should he be worried?
Next thing he knows, things went blurry. And
there´s where his heart actually skipped a beat. He froze, but not for too
long.
It all happened very fast. It was all so
quickly, and at the same time, it seemed like forever. But as soon as his
vision cleared up, he went back to the conversation. Knowing well enough that
it was better to continue and go get checked once this is over.
“Everything ok?” Asked the lady who had been
looking at him with some interest since he got to them. She was looking at his
eyes when he went mute for a second.
“S-sure. No, everything´s fine. I just… zoned
out for a sec. Anyways… There´s not that much of a difference between my friend
Jim and I. But that´s not the main deal here.” He felt odd, maybe it´ll be a
better idea to wrap things up and get out of there. “Now, thank you both for
your time. See ya´ later.” And so, he smiled and walked away.
As he turned, Jim just followed him. Thankful
that this ended up fast.
Meanwhile, the ladies returned to their regular
conversation. But not before one of them said: “He was cute, right?”
“Cute? Well…” The other lady said, shrugging a
bit. He wasn´t really her type.
As Kyle and Jim walked away, their conversation
went on. And yes, it was still height-oriented.
“See? I told you women prefer taller men.” Kyle
said, as if he had won.
“Well, sure. But you can´t be sure just by
asking TWO women. You need to make an actual survey. Get more data…” Jim
started.
“Nah, man, that´s too complicated. Plus, it
would take a ton of time. I´m sure that, with those two ladies, we have more
than enough data.” Kyle said.
“Well, if you say so.” Anything to drive this
conversation somewhere else.
“But, can you believe what she said?” Kyle
asked as they walked down the hall.
“What? That you were cuter than me?” Jim asked,
not really caring if they found Kyle cute. Although, it was just one of them.
“What? No. That´s obvious…” he joked, to what
Jim just rolled his eyes. “No. What she said, about me being 5´10”. Can you
believe that? I´m sure I had like… four-inches on that lady. At least.” That
was true, she was the taller of both, and she stood at 5´7”, however, that was
before…
Kyle didn´t just froze there for no reason. The
feeling he had, the one that only lasted for a second or two, it wasn´t just a
feeling.
Not just a creep in his spine. Not just a
little chill running down his body. No, it was something else. Something that
came here to stay.
He might not notice it yet, but soon, very
soon, he´ll come to see the real consequences of it. The true effects it has to
be such a way. Being so obsessed with height will really get him in trouble
now. The question is, how bad? And, how much of a trouble?
How much of a problem would it be? He´ll be
soon to know…
“Well,” Jim started, looking at Kyle, and
smiling a bit mischievously, with a funny idea in mind. “I don´t know. Right
now, you do seem like 5´10” to me…” he joked.
“Cut it man! I´m 5´11”, I´ve been the same
height since we met. I would rather be 6´, but not all of us are that way.”
Kyle said, a bit upset. But cool.
“Sure, we´re not all the same height. But, to
be honest, there´s no such a difference between 5´11” and 6´, after all, that´s
just an inch. Not enough to be noticeable.” However, that lady did notice it.
To her, that inch seemed more than that, that
inch, in fact, seemed like TWO inches. Which had a major effect on Kyle…
Kyle was cursed. This fixation he´s got with
height, that´s actually going to play some tricks on him. To change him in a
few ways. Now, what the lady said, it was true. Not at first, but now, it was
true.
If you stopped to look at both, Kyle and Jim,
you´d notice Jim´s taller. However, if you were to compare that gap with the
gap before. You´ll see there´s a bit of a difference.
The gap before, compared with the current gap,
there seems to be a wider gap right now. Not just an inch, plus shoes, and
hair. No, leaving that aside, there´s a two-inch gap.
Something had happened to Kyle. Something
uncommon. Almost paranormal. Something… magical.
“Haha, sure. You´re right. But there´s no way
I´d be mistaken for a 5´10” man.” Kyle added, and Jim just nodded to get over
this conversation and move things to a different topic. Sports, maybe.
Actually, anything would be better.
However, as they walked back to their cubicles,
Kyle heard something. A whisper. But one only he could hear.
Suddenly, he heard a whisper. The whisper of a
woman. “Oh, but you´re now 5´10”…” she said.
Kyle heard that and shivered. Then, he turned
to the sides, and then back. What was that?
“Everything ok?” Jim asked, as he noticed Kyle
seemed to be looking for something.
“Oh, yeah. Everything´s fine. I just… thought I
heard something. Never mind, it must´ve been the wind…” Oh, but it wasn´t the
wind.
At most, you might hear a word, or two. But
Kyle, he heard a full sentence. And a full sentence that made sense. Not just
random words. It was something, something real.
Something that creeped him enough to want to
check on that…
Later that night. Once Kyle was back at his
apartment. He was coming out of the shower. Ready to go sit on the couch and
watched something for a while. Although, it´s most likely that he turns on the
TV and just leaves it going while he checks some other thing on his phone.
But this time, instead of just heading for the
couch, he stopped. Kyle stopped half-way there and decided to go check on
something else. His height.
After all, this is always a bit deal to him.
Height, to know that number. Set that number. He´s just too fixed into it. And
being curious about his own height, that makes this more like an urge.
Kyle rushed, grabbed a pencil, a measuring tape
and looked for a place to set the mark.
Why does he have a measuring tape? Well, he
thought it would come in handy. Perhaps, he could set some marks on the wall
and learn how to tell people´s height from the distance. Which is not so
accurate, but he never gave himself the time to do it anyways…
Kyle looked for a spot, a place where he could
stand up straight, and somewhere he could make a mark where it wasn´t so
obvious, or that he could clean up later. But, at the same time, sort of
hidden, just in case he never cleans it up.
Which could be the most possible result…
Kyle stood up, as straight as he could, but
without cheating. He wanted this to be as accurate as possible.
He drove the pencil right above his head, put
the tip on the wall and drew the line. He never thought he´d do this, not
again, but there he is.
Then, he took a step forward, took the tape and
checked on the measure.
“Ok, let´s see… 5´… one, two…seven…nine, ten…”
And there he stopped. At ten. The mark was right next to the 5´10” mark. Kyle
froze for a second.
He had to double check. He made sure the tape
was properly stretched, that the tip was right at the floor, that there wasn´t
anything obstructing it. But on an empty wall, it´s unlikely anything will come
it´s way.
And even if it was like that, wouldn´t it make
him taller?
Kyle couldn´t believe it. The mark was right on
the 5´10”. So, he did what was more logical, he decided to draw another mark.
He stood a step next to the mark. Drew a new one
and remeasured it. The mark seemed to be at the same level, but maybe his eyes
lied. He wasn´t sure.
To his dismay, the mark was right on the 5´10”
level. This number echoed inside his mind.
“5´10”… 5´10”… 5´10”…” He just couldn´t believe
it.
“Maybe… maybe I´ve always been 5´10”? No! No
way! I´m 5´11”! Maybe… maybe the tape´s wrong…” he thought. But it wasn´t like
that.
“Oh, Kyle, the tape´s not wrong. You´re 5´10”
now…” He heard a voice, a voice inside his mind!
Kyle turned everywhere. He freaked out, was
someone inside his apartment? It was the voice of a woman, a female voice.
Where did it come from?
He was paranoid. Had someone break in? He
immediately turned his back against the wall and looked around. This woman
sounds as if she was close, very close. Was she in the same room as he was?
“W-who is it?!” He called, defying this
intruder to step out of the darkness, to reveal herself. Little does he know,
there´s no one there, there´s no one inside his apartment, no one but him…
“Who is this? What? You can´t tell who am I?”
The voice whisper, he could hear her as if she was right next to him, but he
couldn´t see her.
“No! Now step out so that I can see you!” He
yelled, as if there was actually someone there. But the truth is, he´s alone,
physically alone, of course.
She would´ve loved to tease him further. To
torture him, creep his mind further. But she couldn´t wait any longer.
“I´m Aurora.” Dumb, how come he couldn´t
remember? He met her yesterday!
“Aurora? Oh, right. What are you doing at my
place?” He complaint, still trying to find her.
“I´m not inside your apartment, dummy. I´m
inside your mind.” She declared.
“My… my mind? Cut the crap, there´s no way you
can do something like that!” He claimed, now stepping forward and trying to
find her.
“No need to look for me, you won´t find me. I´m
whispering, directly to your mind. And I don´t need to be at the same place you
are to do so. Now, let´s talk about business. You already noticed it worked,
didn´t you?” She asked, so eager to know what was on his mind. Was he mad?
Upset? She wanted to know.
“Sure, whatever… notice what?” He asked.
“Come on, you know what I´m talking about. I´m
speaking of the mark on your wall. The one that says you´re an inch shorter…”
So he wasn´t wrong. And neither was the tape.
He lost an inch, how? And how does she know?
“Tell me!” He said, sternly, looking at the
front, but unsure where she was. “How do you know that?” He was sure she must
be somewhere in his apartment.
“How do I know? I did it. Didn´t I told you
I´ll cast a spell on you?” Spell?
So, was it true? Was she actually a witch or
something? No way. He cannot be sure about it. What if this was some sort of
revenge. A prank! Payback time.
“You don´t believe it, don´t you?” she asked,
well aware of his thoughts. “Don´t worry, you´ll trust me soon enough…” she
knows that, soon, he´ll believe what she says. Until then, she´ll leave him
alone…
Immediately after that, everything went silent.
He couldn´t hear her.
“Hello? Aurora? Hello?” He was alone, completely
alone now.
Kyle didn´t believe her words, she sure was
somewhere at the place. Or, she left a microphone somewhere.
Right now, he´s tired. Too tired to look. Did
she force her way in? Did she plant a mic somewhere? Was she inside the vents?
He doesn´t know, and doesn´t care. But he should. Because this woman, she
wasn´t lying.
Maybe the next time he´ll trust what she says…