"You know, buddy, you wouldn't be able to handle me even if there were two of you."
The mysterious woman he'd spotted across the bar looked him up and down. He hadn't followed her out of the bar, not exactly. He'd been meaning to leave anyway, already settled up his bill and gotten his card back from behind the bar. Just cause he chugged the last of his beer... They'd been chatting so pleasantly. He'd let her talk about herself, even listened to her. She didn't _owe_ him anything of course, but he hadn't wanted the night to end yet.
Her dress clung enticingly as she walked away from him, form fitting yet obscuring. Here in the dim streetlight on the sidewalk, the ends seemed to be made of shadow or mist, undefined and flowing in the wind of her passage. Must be the beer.
She turned and walked towards the alleyway. Must be parked there or something. He followed without thinking, stepping into the shadows. Sober-Trey would've realized how creepy that was, but he wasn't a bad person. He wouldn't do anything she didn't want him to. Other than talk, maybe just talk. Besides, she didn't seem worried at all.
A black cat sauntered out of the shadows and curled itself around her legs. She picked it up and stroked it behind the ears.
"Well, then I wish there were three of me, but even with just one--"
"You know what? I had fun chatting tonight, so I'll grant you that one. Three it is. But you're still not coming home with me, I don't think Abby would like you very much."
"Hettie..." the cat purred. It looked like a patch of shadow more than a cat now, but neither could speak, right? "What are you up to?"
Trey managed a startled "Wha--" before cutting off when her dress became more and more wispy. It still covered her perfectly, but the edges blurred and her eyes started to glow a fluorescent green. Her voice sounded odd, as if she were chanting, but there was something... She was speaking backwards, and not the regular way some people could, but as if a recording of her voice was played back in reverse. Chills ran down his spine. He started to turn to run when there was a flash of bright viridian light. His vision blurred and doubled, and he braced himself for the pain of being hit in the head.
A flash of sensation so strange passed through him, he swore something touched him on every cell of his body, both inside and out. The world lurched around him unevenly in three directions at the same time. He lost his balance, falling to his knees, three sets of hands on three different stretches of pavement, one in a puddle... He could feel his right palm, dry and wet at the same time. Another had a point of bright pain as it leaned on a piece of gravel.
He retched, emptying three stomachs. The splash of beer and bar snacks landing on the pavement came from all around.
"What did--" The echo of his own voice was disorienting, making it hard to speak. He forced himself to focus, spoke despite the echoing. "What did you do to me?"
"I granted your wish. Or cursed you for being a creep and following a lone woman into a dark alleyway. Really, I thought you were different. Oh, and don't think you can have your wicked way with women more easily now, there's--" a brief, ominous pause "--conditions to this."
He looked around, his vision lurching wildly again. To his left -- was that still a concept that made sense? -- there was another man just like him, and another to his right. His perspective shifted and one of them turned their head while the others didn't. Looking himself in the eye was a dizzying experience.
"I wasn't-- I just enjoyed talking to-- talking to you and-- I'm sorry, I didn't-- I would never--"
"Oh, I know you wouldn't, I can read people that well at least. Let's just say you wouldn't be here if I thought you would. Here." She flipped a business card onto the ground in front of one of him. "If you want me to undo this, come see me in a month. But remember, being a creep has little to do with intentions."
With that, he watched as she lifted off the ground a couple of inches and vanished in a burst of wind and a flash of more green light.
---
He woke up with a splitting headache. Willing himself to go back to sleep didn't work. Awareness of the world around him came slowly, starting with the blinding white light from the open curtains. He wasn't alone in bed. He felt otherworldly, like his limbs didn't belong to him.
Trey opened his eyes again. The visual jumble was worse than expected. Christ, how much had he had to drink last night? He seemed to be in his own bed, but who had he brought home? That mysterious woman from the bar?
He sat bolt upright and fell out of the side of the bed simultaneously. Still curled up in the blankets, he grunted at the impact and forced down a retch trying to empty an already empty stomach.
"Fuck." The word echoed from three mouths.
Staying where he was, he tried to focus. So that hadn't been some horrible nightmare. He had been cursed, and this was real, even if it was utterly impossible. He had three bodies now. They were all him. One mind, utterly overloaded with sensory input. Comfortable sheets, hard floor, three points of view.
Trey closed his eyes. He could deal with the sound. Deal with the conflicting sense of touch and the smells and as long as he laid still all the rest. Vision was too messed up to contemplate though. Even with his eyes closed, the veins on the inside of his lids danced in eye watering ways, like looking at one of those crazy dot pictures that was supposed to look 3D.
Slowly, he tried opening one eye. The world lurched again. Christ, how had he even managed to get home last night? A vague memory of stumbling and managing to hail a cab, then a very confused driver opening the door to his apartment for him. He tried to focus on one field of vision. His eyes started to hurt, but he pushed through until he could look around the room without wanting to throw up. The world was still visual cacophony, and opening both eyes made the whole thing even more difficult.
The next step was to try to move just one body. He smacked himself in the head, jammed his hand against the bedframe, the wall, even punched himself in the balls once, but finally he managed to raise just one arm.
"Fuck yeah!" Three voices said in unison.
Another thirty minutes of practice, and he managed to have his body on the floor crawl and then unsteadily stumble into the bathroom. His bladder ached, and telling which one was impossible. He didn't trust his control enough yet to release the flow on just one of him anyway.