Obsession is 9/10th's of the Law

 Originally posted on Tumblr: Dec 22nd 2022

 

“Looks better than ever, doesn’t it?!” Mr. Elaliey beamed proudly.

The whole Elaliey clan stood outside of their remodeled home. They all had the same look of disbelief. The incident had really happened here? Grady, the oldest boy, was the most in shock. It had sort of been his fault that ‘the incident that should not be named’ so declared by his mother had even occurred in the first place. He had gotten so much flack for it by his parents, but after three months in a hotel everyone was over being angry. Not to mention just craving to get back home. Ryan, the younger brother and easily more impatient zoomed past his family into the house. 

“Wait, I wanted to give you…a tour”. Mr. Elaliey put his hands on his hips and hung his head down defeated. He didn’t have much to do but think about the house while he was on paid leave. As a cop it was easy to get engrossed in his work, but the house sapped all that attention away.

“Go get your brother, please.” Mrs. Elaliey asked. Her request was curt and though Grady’s punishment had ended he knew he was still in hot water.  

“Yes mom.” He took off into the house, jogging past his dad, who clapped him on the back. He made his way upstairs. He did take time to appreciate how the workers had rebuilt everything. When he made it to Ryan’s room, his little brother was sitting on the floor with his PS5 already turned on. Ryan’s room had been decimated but was now restored and ready to go. Ryan and his brother weren’t that different with the same blue eyes, and baby-like face thanks to their father. Only major difference, besides the obvious height one, was Ryan’s hair which their mother constantly fawned over, calling it baby blond. 

“Little dude you gotta wait, dad wants to show the place off.” Grady stopped talking for a moment. He looked around his brother’s room. Something was slightly off. He walked into the room staring at the small bookshelf in the corner. On the top, Ryan, or more accurately their parents, used it as a shelf with pictures of the family. This was how Ryan’s room looked before. It shouldn’t have been a problem, but Grady couldn’t shake his weird feeling. He reached for a book of fairy tales; one he had passed down to Ryan when he outgrew them. Grady flipped through the pages, both brothers had the book for years and there were notes and scribbles on the sides. Grady smiled, laughing to himself. 

Then he stopped as his smile faded. He remembered how Ryan’s room had ended up. Everything was lost. And sure, their dad could replace the materials maybe even buy new books but copy the notes that even Grady couldn’t remember writing? Weird. He slammed the book closed. Perhaps they had been able to salvage the books? He turned to leave the room and jolted back, startled. For a moment he thought a person had been standing behind him. However, it was just a poster of some muscular dude. A hot dude at that, Grady thought.  A man with brown curly hair, a deep tan, perfect teeth, doing some typical bodybuilding pose.

“What is this?” Grady asked as Ryan reacted to his inquiry, sat down his controller, and walked over.

“I don’t know, never saw it,” Ryan said, clearly, he didn’t care, he simply wanted to get to his game. 

“Maybe they used it for,” Grady made a jerk off motion and laughed. He figured one of the remodeler’s must have left it. He could joke about them leaving it for “motivation”. But on a serious note, there was no way professionals would just leave something like this in a client’s house, right? Their tools, their radio, maybe but a poster of a guy in nothing but underwear that was a bit too far.

“Boys, are you coming down?” Their father said, stepping in.

“Dad, the workers left something on Ryan’s door.”

Their father made a questioning look before stepping into see the poster on the back of the door as well. “Holy shit!” Their dad exclaimed, making both boys jump at their dad cursing. “Sorry boys, but do you guys not know who this is?!” 

Grady and Ryan looked at each other at a loss.

“This is Bob Paris!” Their dad exclaimed happily. He put his hand over his mouth sliding it down as if trying to wipe away his smile, but it wasn’t working. Their dad leaned in closer to the photo “And it’s autographed?!” his hands migrated up to his head, “What is this nonsense? This is amazing! I would have killed for one of these backs in the late 80’s.”

“Uh dad, you okay there?” Grady asked.

“I’m fine. I just can’t believe someone could just leave this here. I mean look at it, it’s practically in mint condition. I don’t even want to touch it.” He turned to his sons. You boys just don’t understand Bob Paris was like my idol the way he could just pack on muscles. I prayed for genetics like that.” Mr. Elaliey tried to copy the pose Bob Paris was doing. “What’d ya think, boys did I do it?”

Grady did his best not to laugh; he was still on thin ice with his parents as it was. Ryan, however, was under no such obligation and laughed, leading Grady to as well. Their dad smiled and ended up laughing with them. Grady’s eyes slowly moved back over to the poster. Bob Paris’ hair was shifting from brown to black. Grady rubbed his eyes as his laughter died down, was he seeing things?

“You want the poster dad?” Ryan asked.

“I can’t, your mom would kill me. It’s best to leave it here. She wasn’t really a fan of my bodybuilding years. I’ll go call the workers and hopefully they’ll bring gloves to take this beauty down.” He turned to leave, but Grady was following right behind him with Ryan in tow.

“Wait, you were a bodybuilder dad?” Grady asked.

“Oh, It was a long time ago,” Their father let out a warm chuckle. “Before you and your brother were even concepts.”

Ryan cut their father off before he got to the steps “Wait, did you win anything?”

“Well, it was never really about winning for me. I just felt like bodybuilders embodied something I wanted for myself. Attractiveness and confidence mostly. Then when I learned about Bob Paris he became my idol. I listened to all the interviews. Can you imagine just deciding one day to take up working out, then just taking it? I wanted to explode with size and strength in high school like him.  Their dad sighed, “Unfortunately that didn’t hit me until college. Anyways,” Mr. Elaliey picked up his tone. “I think I was about to be a sophomore in high school when he came out.”

There was a record scratch in Grady’s thought process, “Wait, he’s gay?” And there he was thinking it would be another win for the straights, but the universe gave mercy every now and then.

“Oh yeah, and he was married too.” 

“Wait, he was married in the 80’s? That doesn’t make sense.” Grady questioned.

“You think I’m lying? Bodybuilders were my life. The way he came out into the world. I wanted that.” Mr. Elaliey paused. “Not the coming out part of course,” he leaned closer to his sons, “you boys can verify with your mother about that one.”

“Eww.” Ryan made a yuck face.

“Gross dad.” Grady rolled his eyes.

Their father went on, “But that courage.” He turned to Grady and put his hand on his son’s shoulder. “The same courage you had when you came out to your mother and me.”  He held up his free hand before pointing at Grady, “You should look up Bob Paris. You might like what you find.” He got Ryan to move out the way so he could go down the stairs “I have to convince your mom not to take the poster down until the workers come and get it back.”

Ryan scurried back into his room leaving Grady alone in the hallway. He couldn’t believe his dad had been a bodybuilder and he had never known. Their dad never talked about the gym or fitness. Sure, he talked about eating healthy but only in the way most parents did; annoyingly. Grady knew he was going to do more than just ‘like’ whatever he found about this Bob Paris guy. He decided one more peek couldn’t hurt. Ryan was invested in Spider-Man barely noticing Grady come in for a final glance.

Grady studied the poster, So did the Bob Paris guy have black hair or really dark brown? He could have sworn it was a lighter shade of brown earlier. His eyes drifted to the autograph. He didn’t take a gander like his father had but the name signed there now didn’t look like it said anything remotely to Bob Paris.

After their family dinner, Grady rushed to his laptop. As a soon to be gay college student one could say he researched Bob Paris, and that he researched Bob Paris.  The guy was hot; Grady couldn’t help himself. He wished he could look like that or at least get the poster in his room. Though his dad was adamant about not moving it. Grady ended the night satisfied in all senses of the word. He didn’t care about his rebuilt room or anything else. What he did care about was that Bob Paris’ hair was wrong on the poster and the autograph was wrong. Which meant it was probably a fake poster or something. Kinda sucked that this dad got so excited over nothing, but if his dad was such a super fan, he should have noticed. 

Grady had gotten a good hour of sleep, when he heard someone creep into his room. Downside of being a light sleeper. Grady started to reach for the small lamp on his desk until he recognized the figure of his younger brother in the room. “Can I sleep in here with you tonight?” Ryan asked. He was wearing his usual choice of pajamas, a matching set for top and bottom. 

“You’re a little too old to be sneaking into my room for a sleepover.” Grady complained. He pulled away from the lamp pulling his covers back up,” What’s going on?

Ryan fiddled with his fingers not speaking, “I just don’t want to be in my room alone.”

Uh-huh,” Grady said, not convinced at all. “Look mom and dad are already pissed at me. Dad’s been warming up, but I’m not trying to slide back the first night.” His parents would definitely think they spent the night playing video games based on their past history.

“Since when do you care so much?” Ryan whined. As sons of a police officer, they were very well mannered in public, but had certainly picked up a rebellious streak behind closed doors. Which in Grady’s case unfortunately led to the incident.

“Since I made us lose our house. I’ve missed sleeping in my bed. You should get back to yours.” Grady flipped over and pretended to sleep. He never heard his brother leave and that’s because Grady knew he didn’t. Grady basically felt holes searing into his back from Ryan’s stare.” Fine you can sleep in here, but you sleep on the floor.” Grady pointed a finger, then tossed a pillow at his brother.

His little brother squeed happily before dropping to the floor. Grady rolled his eyes. Ryan may not have realized it yet, but Grady’s days of acting out were over. Now Grady just wanted to be a normal gay teen, lusting after vintage bodybuilder posters. When morning came Grady woke Ryan up to sneak back into his room. Then his father came knocking an hour later to wake everyone up for breakfast. 

During breakfast, Grady was picking through his eggs when he said, “Mom, did you know dad was a bodybuilder?”

Mr. Elaliey choked on his food for a second. 

Mrs. Elaliey, instead of giving Grady a sour face, laughed. She actually laughed. She hadn’t done that for Grady in months. “Oh yes, young man Tarzan, I called him,” resting her head on her hand she stared at her husband dreamily. Meanwhile Mr. Elaliey started to turn red.

“Did you make him stop?” Ryan asked.

Grady wanted to jump over the table and cover Ryan’s mouth. Here Grady had been prepared to take the conversation slow and Ryan just took a hammer and bulldozed to the point. If they weren’t careful their mom might shut down the questioning.

She blinked before sitting back up, “Well, I can admit I wasn’t fond of the bodybuilding lifestyle. I mean they’re nice to look at but living with one is a wallet destroyer. Also, personally I don’t like men with too many muscles.”

Mr. Elaliey, got up from his seat red as a tomato, “I need some air.”

“I haven’t been able to embarrass your dad like that in a while.” She touched Grady’s arm, chuckling. As her laughter died, she turned back to her boys, “But you guys don’t care about that. You want to know about your dad. Well, the truth is, I didn’t make him stop. I would never ask him to do that with something he loves. But when we got together, I realized your father had an obsessive personality. It was easy for him to hyperfixated on one thing and neglect others. A trait he passed on to you boys. Ryan and your video games, Grady and your…love of fire.” She gave a smile that said, let’s leave it at that.’

Gardy was shocked at how well breakfast went. His mother was even humming a tune when Grady collected the dishes too. Grady had been placed on permanent dish duties unless stated by his parents. He wasn’t sure if they were on perfect terms now, but perhaps his mom was warming up. Ryan was waiting for him upstairs after the dishes were cleaned. After all, he had promised to play video games whenever Ryan wanted. An apology for the whole destroyed room thing. Now that Ryan had his PS5 back, Grady was starting to consider that a gift card might be a better option. 

He walked into Ryan’s room as his brother closed the door behind him. Grady took a peek behind him. He had been hoping to get another look at Bob Paris on his brother’s door. He had searched all night for the particular picture but couldn’t find anything on the internet. Even if it was a fake, it was nice to look at. Though when Grady saw the poster he was let down. 

“Aww, you took it down.” Grady said playfully. The poster had been replaced by a black and white one with another man at the center of his focus. Wide chest, dark hair, double bicep pose. No doubt another body builder. Though the autograph was oddly similar to the one on the Bob Paris poster. But why would Ryan…” Did dad give you this and take the other one for himself.” Grady couldn’t stop the idea of his father taking a fake and replacing it.

“What? No, that’s the same one from yesterday.” Ryan said as he pulled two chairs to the center of his room and booted up his PlayStation.

“Ryan, I can clearly tell this is a new poster. I’m not stupid.”

“It’s the same poster from yesterday, that dad was obsessed with.” Ryan patted the chair beside him, telling Grady to sit. Not wanting to fight over something so stupid Grady just gave up. Ryan didn’t care about the poster yesterday, so why would he know what it looked like today? Their father could have secretly swapped it and Ryan just accepted the new one. Grady went over and enjoyed his time with his brother. Eventually his brother went out with friends, while Grady was left in the house with his parents.

He wasn’t grounded per se, but he knew he wouldn’t get too much leeway. Instead of going out he tried to get his best buddy Demetrius to come over. With it being the final summer before college though Demetrius was spending time with his girlfriend, Adrianna. The two planned on breaking up at the end of the summer but decided to enjoy their time together. So, all Grady got was a “Sorry bro.” on the phone.  Adrianna was a tutor and had tutored Ryan two summers ago. That’s how Demetrius and she connected. Grady considered asking Ryan to say he needed help in a subject. He shook his head viciously. No, that was the old Grady. No more scheming, no more plans, and certainly no more pranks. It would just blow up in his face… literally.

As he was walking around the house trying not to drive himself crazy. He paused at his brother’s room and called for his dad. All he wanted to do was embarrass his dad a little for taking the poster. Maybe confirm his mom was right about their father being obsessive.  When he pointed to the change his dad said, “A Steve Reeves poster, nice. “

“Yeah Steve Reeves,” Grady said in a ‘who cares about that’ way, “I wonder what happened to the Bob Paris one?” His act was so superficial and transparent he was waiting for his dad to pick up on it.

“Bob Paris?” His dad looked up from the poster and looked around the room, “There was a Bob Paris poster in here?” Not finding it he set his hands on his hips shaking his head, “I hope Ryan didn’t throw it away.”

“Dad I’m not talking about another Bob Paris poster, I’m talking about the one that was here yesterday.”

Mr. Elaliey stared at his son, then at the new poster, “Grady, this was the poster that was here yesterday.”

“Um, no. Yesterday it was Bob Paris. You told me about him being gay in the 80’s, you looked up to him. That’s when you said you used to be a bodybuilder.” Grady said.

“I remember telling you about my bodybuilding past, but I certainly would have remembered Bob Paris. I don’t even think I mentioned Steve Reeves by name yesterday. Maybe you just heard Bob Paris somewhere and thought they were the same.”

Grady knew he had certainly not “just heard a name”. He had actually been touched by what his dad said yesterday about him being brave, not that he’d admit it. But it actually kind of hurt his dad was pretending it didn’t happen. His dad may know bodybuilders, but Grady knew men and this Steve guy was not Bob Paris. “You told me yesterday that you wished you had the poster in your room back in high school.”

“I mean it would be a nice poster to have in general, but Steve Reeves isn’t really my generation.” Mr. Elaliey scrunched up his eyebrows, “Wait, how old do you think I am?”

“Okay dad,” Grady just brushed past his father. He thought they’d have a laugh about it, not whatever-misremembering joke his dad was going for. Grady wanted no part of it. Though the name Steve Reeves did sound kinda familiar. He looked up the name and Steve was very much not Bob Paris. Most of the photos online were in black and white. There was no way Grady would just slip up names like that.

When night came Grady found himself peacefully curled up in bed. There was a familiar knocking at his door as Ryan came in. “Are you serious? Again? What are you four?” Grady said as he was being disturbed.  

“I can’t sleep in my room.”

“Because…” Grady rolled his hand, he was going to need more than that.

“You’re going to laugh at me.” Ryan pouted.

“Why would I laugh, I’m trying to sleep here.”

“It’s that poster that dad likes; it creeps me out.”

Grady rolled his eyes internally. Were they still going with the ‘it’s the same poster crap’? “You seemed fine with it this morning. And yesterday.”

“It’s okay when the sun’s out but–

Grady put up his hand up, “Ryan, I don’t have time for this. Go back to your room.” 

“Fine.” Ryan said angrily and stormed out. He heard the door to Ryan’s room close.

Grady was able to go back to sleep with no other disturbances, Until he woke up at 3am with the need to use the bathroom. He struggled out of bed as he made his way into the hall. Passing by Ryan’s room, he stopped. There was a faint sound. He leaned onto the door; it was like metal clanging against itself. It piqued Grady’s curiosity and he slowly opened the door, Only to find Ryan sleeping peacefully in his bed. Silence. He stepped into the room. Nothing, He started to leave before noticing the Steve Reeves poster. In the dark it looked like the man had a beard. Shrugging, Grady closed the door and went to the bathroom. When passing back, Grady thought he heard the sound again, but realized it was the new house making noises. 

The next morning, Grady stretched out in bed and reveled in being back home for the summer. Sure, graduation came and went, while he was stuck in a hotel room. But now it was finally hitting him. He had time to enjoy his room. Practically dancing out of bed, he spun on his floor as he made his way out his room. He thought for sure he’d be the first one awake. However, he found his Dad standing in Ryan’s room looking at the back of Ryan’s door. 

“Dad?” Grady asked. Ryan peered from behind his door, showing he was also there.

“Oh, come here Grady,” His father waved him over. Grady stepped into Ryan’s room and turned expecting to see the poster from yesterday. Instead of a black and white, it was in color and the dude on there was massive. Grady was sure he could see every muscle striation on the hulking figure. The photographer and the model must have worked endlessly to get it so perfect.

“This is Lou Ferrigno,” Their father said. “I was just telling your brother a little bit about him. He has a son Lou Ferrigno Jr., he’s well built himself. I guess when your father is built like that some part of it must be imprinted onto you. And I’m sure his father taught him.”

“How come you never got us into fitness dad?” Ryan asked. Grady however was more taken by where this poster had even come from.  Were Ryan and his dad just going to keep putting up a new one every day?

“Did you want to be? I never wanted to force what I loved on you kids. And your mom knew I had a way of getting intense with that especially, so I kept into myself.”

“Working out sounds cool, but I don’t think it’s my thing.” Ryan said. “You, Grady?”

“Huh?”  Grady turned his attention towards his family. “Oh, working out. I love the concept but suck at the execution.”  Ryan and his dad kept talking but Grady wanted to know where they kept getting these posters from. They probably bought them in bulk from the same place. He stepped up to feel the material. As he rubbed the front and back with his forefingers, it was glossy and slick. He pulled away and watched as color from the photo pulled off with it.  Grady sucked his teeth; it was cheaper than he thought. But when he looked at where his hands had touched, he didn’t see an erased space. Instead, there was black and white underneath. Curious, Grady reached back to rubbed at it. More color from the poster came off. His father and Ryan Didn’t even notice. They were too busy talking about Mr. Elialiey’s old dumbbells and weights. Grady continued to rub and watched as the poster’s color got rubbed away by his hand. Though what was underneath was not a grayscale version of Lou Ferrigno it was another man entirely in a completely different pose.

“Oh wow,” Mr. Elaliey said, “That’s Jim Haislop. Retired at 27…from bodybuilding I mean. If I could retire from–”

“Dad!” Grady said, holding up his hand. “Did you not just see what happened to that Lou ferr.-furrr… whatever poster?” 

“What are you talking about? You’ve been poking around at Jim for a while now, but I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“How do you explain…” Grady pulled his hand back only to see nothing. The colors that had rubbed onto his hand were gone. “What?”

“Grady, are you feeling, okay?” Mr. Elaliey asked. Even Ryan was looking worried. 

“Did you guys really not see the poster change?”

“Grady, I just told you it’s Jim Haislop.” Mr. Elaliey said softly, no hint of humor in his voice. He was completely serious.

“Okay.” Grady walked out leaving his brother and father talking.

Grady thought it’d be over with that, but it was nonstop. Every day, his brother would have a new poster plastered on his back door. His dad would see it and would stop the boys to tell them who it was.

“Larry Scott.”

“Serge Nubret.”

“Samir Bannout.”

“Jim Morris.”

“Franco Columbu.”

“Chris Dickerson.”

“Lee Labrada.”

“DAD, I get it! You know a lot of bodybuilders. You were really into it. I don’t need to know everyone.” His father had stopped him on the way to the bathroom. But Grady couldn’t keep up with all the names. He also couldn’t fap that much either. Something had to give. 

“But this is the first time I’m telling you about–

Grady ignored his father and went to the bathroom. He was able to get by unbothered until later when he caught Ryan coming up from the basement with dumbbells in his hands.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking dad’s old weights, he said I could use them. I was thinking about building up some muscle.” Ryan tried to flex his bicep.

“I thought you preferred your games.”

“I do, but working out a little can’t hurt. Besides every time I look at the poster in my room I feel like it’s shaming me.”

“I thought you were afraid of the poster?”

“I am. But today I saw it, and I thought why not, but at night it’s like…” Ryan stopped to look at Grady before shaking his head, “You don’t care.” He went back to carrying the weights up to his room.

“Ryan, I do care,” Grady tried to explain but Ryan ignored him and continued to make trips taking Dad’s long forgotten equipment from the basement. Grady refused to be ignored and started to help Ryan out. When the last of the weights were set down on Ryan’s floor. Ryan closed the door to his room and showed Grady the poster. Well, it looked more like a page out of a newspaper. 

“I just hate the way he looks at me. All day every day and at night it’s…” Ryan shivered. 

Grady had to admit the current model did seem to have a look geared towards the reader. All the previous posters though had different poses. So, Ryan was conflating this poster with the previous ones like always. 

“In only 7 days I can make you a man.” Grady smiled, “This made you want to work out? You think you can change in 7 days. This isn’t The Ring.” Grady affectionately rubbed his brother’s head. “Who’s this guy supposed to be?”

“It’s Charles Atlas. That’s what dad said at least.” Ryan picked up a weight before losing interest and going to his games. It all sounded familiar, but Grady couldn’t place it though it was on the tip of his tongue. There was no way he knew about it from bodybuilding; he wasn’t his father. It had to be something else. 

Late that night when Grady finally decided to search the name. He got his answer by watching a video. 

“We could take in an old Steve Reeves movie…

Grady scrubbed the video forward a lot. 

“Makes me shake…

 makes me want to take Charles Atlas by the hhhhaaandddd

In just seven days,

I can make you a maannnn”

Grady’s mouth dropped open. He ended up on YouTube watching a full play version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, it wasn’t even bootleg. He’s seen the movie once or twice but now he actually understood the references it was making. “Oh wow, I get it.” Grady actually got up to go tell his brother about the discovery.

When he got to Ryan’s room, however he heard familiar metal clanging, but this time accompanied by grunts. Well Grady wasn’t one to dictate when his little brother could and couldn’t work out so he knocked on the door and waited. After a few minutes when his brother didn’t answer, Grady figured he had earphones in and turned the door open. 

Grady walked into a silent room. The lights were off, and Ryan was sleeping peacefully on his bed. There was a strange sense of deja vu. Grady walked out of the room, had his midnight brain played a trick on him? He closed the door and the sound came back. Grady could definitely make out a person if it wasn’t the house. He pretended like he was walking away, then rushed to the door and opened it. No matter how fast Ryan was, Grady should have caught something, but his brother was knocked out. Grady stepped into the room and back to the door closed it. Still nothing. Absolute silence.

Turning around, Grady had a shiver go up his spine. For a moment he thought the ‘Charles’ guy had been staring at him.  Grady walked out of Ryan’s room but left the door open. When he didn’t hear anything, he went to bed.

The next morning Grady was determined to ask Ryan what happened last night. He knocked on his brother’s door. There was an entire speech he had planned out if his brother refuted him. Too bad it went out the window the moment he saw Ryan. When the door opened Grady wasn’t sure who he was looking at. The person looked like Ryan, but with his body stretched out. His pajama bottoms clung closely to his legs and the hem of his shirt hung above his belly button. The way he rubbed his eyes in the morning was familiar enough that Grady knew it was Ryan. Yet his brother had gained inches overnight. Grady was 5’10, so Ryan had to push at least 5’7. 

“Wha? How did you get so big? Is this what they mean by overnight growth?” Grady couldn’t believe who he was staring at. When they got down to breakfast Grady was sure his parents would say something, but they ignored Ryan’s growth spurt. Their father hadn’t even said anything about the stupid ever changing poster. As his dad dished out the pancakes. Grady was flabbergasted when his dad gave Ryan six. He could barely finish 3. It was always Grady who got the extra food. 

“Dad, what the heck?”

“Come on Grady. He’s going to need it since he’s going to be using my old weights.” Their father laughed.

“Favoritism.” Grady pointed at his dad. 

“He’s got a point.” Mrs. Elaliey threw at her husband, trying to hide a smile. 

Their father, stunned into silence grumbled, “Fine.” and surrendered two of his pancakes over to Grady leaving him with 5. Grady couldn’t help but be miffed he was still getting less although he was older. Ignoring his feelings of petty jealousy, he stuffed his face. After all he did cause the incident no need to cause more trouble than needed.

Grady had to wash dishes after breakfast, but he caught Ryan on his way out the dining room. “Games after breakfast?”

“Oh yeah,” Ryan had a surprise look, as if he hadn’t even considered it. “Just come to my room when you’re done.” Then he rushed upstairs. Walking back to the kitchen, Grady really couldn’t believe his parents weren’t going to comment on Ryan’s growth even when Ryan was gone. Grady was expecting at least a little gossip, but they were truly unfazed. 

Disappointed, Grady trudged up the steps and headed for Ryan’s room. At the door Grady paused for a minute as he heard grunting on the other side. It was a bit off from what he heard, at night, lighter somehow. “Ryan?” Grady whispered. When he didn’t get an answer. Grady pushed the door open; it collided with something on the other side that fell onto the floor and Grady poked his head through the opening he made.

“Ouch, what’d you do that for?” Ryan said, rubbing his head. Dumbbells were at his side and rolled around. 

Grady’s heart dropped, racing inside he checked on his brother. holding Ryan’s head up to make sure there was no nose bleeding he asked, “You, okay?” As Ryan nodded. Grady continued his questioning, “Why didn’t you say you were there when I called you?”

“Did you call me? I didn’t hear you?” Ryan admitted.

“I mean I whispered, but it’s not like it was that much of a whisper. Especially if you were standing on the other side of the door.” Grady turned to look at the poster; it was still the Newspaper-looking article of Charles Atlas from before: 

In only 7 days I can make you a man.

That made Grady take a moment to consider why hadn’t it changed, but he was more worried about his brother. “Why were you just standing behind your door?”

“I was working out.”

“I’ll say it again…behind the door?”

“Well, yeah I was using the poster to get me motivated and pumped.” Ryan said as Grady released him from brotherly care. “Now you wanna help me with Spider-Man? There’s a boss I can’t beat.” 

Ryan had changed the topics abruptly. Grady thought his brother was embarrassed about being caught working out and put on his ass. Though if Ryan was serious about it Grady wasn’t going to make fun of him for it. And if Ryan wanted to ignore working out then Grady could do that as well. Grady gave the poster one more glance before letting it drift to the back of his mind.

Demetrius finally stopped by with his girlfriend in tow. They were terrible company, making googly eyes at each other, then switching into an argument. The couple was no fun to be around. Grady at one point had to use the restroom only to return to Ryan’s room empty except for Demetrius’ pouting.

“She fucking grabbed your brother to go on a walk with her. Said she needed someone mature and reasonable to clear her head with.” Demetrius crossed his arms and snarled, getting even madder. It was the perfect time for Grady to mention the poster, but Demetrius was so invested in his own personal drama Grady never got the chance. When Adrianna came back with Ryan it was clear she had done something similar to talk his poor ears off. The brothers couldn’t kick them out of the house fast enough. 

Nighttime came and Grady was receiving endless texts from Demetrius about Adrianna. Grady decided to put his phone on silent mode and respond to it in the morning. He fell asleep, but not for long, as the familiar sound of his door opening woke him up. Sighing, Grady turned in bed toward his door expecting to see his little brother wandering in. When he opened his eyes, instead there was a huge lumbering dark figure moving toward him. It walked silently, which should have been impossible given the sheer size. The floorboard should have creaked under the weight. Although it looked human in shape Grady couldn’t make out any discernible features as if it was permanently cast in the dark.  Grady screamed and scrambled for his desk lamp. Flicking it on, he turned to see his little brother at his bedside.

Grady’s chest heaved as he caught his breath, “Dude! Don’t scare me like that.” He couldn’t believe his mind had such a weird trick on him waking from his dream state. Leaning over in bed, he swatted his brother in the stomach. It was meant to be a playful tap, but the back of his hand got some resistance. “What the? “Lifting up Ryan’s shirt. Grady saw his brother’s remaining ounces of baby fat had faded away leaving the beginnings of abs. Which wasn’t fair at all, even Grady still had baby fat. He totally got why their dad couldn’t grow muscle until college. Yet his brother works out for a day and what? Burns the fat just like that? There was no way.

“Can I–

“Sleep in here?”  Grady finished for him. “Ryan this is ridiculous,” Grady threw off his covers and got out of his bed. “Sleep in here tonight.  I’ll sleep in your room and prove to you there’s nothing to be afraid of from a poster.” Grady watched his brother crawl into bed then he went to Ryan’s room. He collapsed on the pillow ready to go back to sleep. His mind wouldn’t rest as easy though. He was awake and now his thoughts had to die down first. An endless stream of consciousness, How many more times did Ryan plan to come into his room? Why didn’t his parents wake up when he screamed? As Grady tossed and turned in bed. He couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched, similar to when Ryan did it to him a few nights ago. However, there was no one else in the room this time. Still Grady couldn’t shake the feeling. Opening his eyes he turned to Ryan’s door. 

Due to the darkness of the room, the man on the poster… it appeared as if he was leaning out of the 2-dimensional space and staring directly at Grady. Grady turned around still feeling the fake stare on his back. It was more than just a little uncomfortable. Grady turned his neck, thinking he should take the poster down. Upon seeing Charles Atlas’ face, which appeared to look much more sinister at night, than its righteous pride during the day, Grady turned back towards the wall. He could take it down in the morning.

Yep, the morning was a much better time.

When Grady woke up the next morning, it was because Ryan had come back into the room and was doing pushups. Grady peered over the bed, watching Ryan shift into crunches. “Good morning to you too.”

“Hey, I didn’t want to wake you,” Ryan said going up and down. “But I couldn’t miss my morning routine.”

“Routine? You just started yesterday.”

Ryan paused as he was coming up, there was a confused look on his face before his eyebrows relaxed. “Well, it’s never too late to start a new one.” He went back to it.

“Righttttt?” Grady said getting out of Ryan’s bed. He strode over to the poster, then ripped it down. “You were right, this thing is creepy as fuck.” He balled it up and shot it into Ryan’s trash can.  He started to walk out then stopped. “Actually, just to be sure.” He grabbed the balled up poster and took it to the outside trash can. A job completed. 

When Grady returned to his room, and turned his phone’s volume back to normal, Demetrius was already calling him. 

“Dude, you can’t just ignore me,” was the first thing Grady heard. He rolled his eyes but stayed on the line, “We’re supposed to be best friends. Anyways, Adrianna wouldn’t shut up about other guys yesterday.” 

Grady briefly considered mentioning Demetrius wouldn’t shut up about her, but it wasn’t worth the drama. Thankfully it was his dad’s morning call for breakfast that saved him from Demetrius’ rant.

At the breakfast table, Ryan, after stuffing his face, kept fidgeting and it bothered Grady enough to ask, “You, okay?”

“I don’t know, my clothes are too tight.” Ryan pulled at the collar of his shirt. Grady hadn’t really paid much attention to Ryan’s clothes since he grew a few days ago. But he was surprised their parents hadn’t taken Ryan to buy anything new. Even now his parents were going on about something inconsequential, when Ryan was broadcasting his want for new clothes. Ryan excused himself and ran upstairs. Grady was sure his parents would say something then, but when they didn’t do anything, Grady spoke up.

“Aren’t one of you going to go after him?” He looked towards the stairs.

“Oh, we wouldn’t want to disturb him, you know how important his morning routine is to your brother.” his mom waved him off.

“Why is everyone acting like he didn’t just start yesterday?” Grady said in disbelief.

“Hey, it doesn’t matter when a person starts just how dedicated they are to their goal. That’s how I was in my college days.” Mr. Elaliey shared before he and his wife continued their previous conversation. Grady, stunned by his parents’ sudden disregard for Ryan. He got up from the table. “What the heck was up with them?”  Grady thought. A few days ago, his father was about to pout because Ryan wouldn’t do the tour, now he just brushed off Ryan’s weird behavior? 

“Sweetie don’t forget–

“Yeah, the dishes, I’ll clean them as soon as I come back down.” Grady brushed his mom off. Not his smartest move considering he was hoping to mend their relationship, but his parents didn’t call him out on it. Worried about Ryan, he went upstairs to his brother’s room. There he found his brother doing bicep curls, with the door open.

“Hey, who are you showing off for?” Grady joked but when Ryan ignored it, Grady added. “Wanna play some games. Might make you feel better?”

Ryan pondered for a second before returning to his workout. “Maybe later.”

Grady’s eyes went wide, “Okay who are you, and what have you done with my brother.” Another joke that Ryan didn’t respond to. Then Grady got serious. “Ryan, are you okay?” But his little brother continued to work on his arms. Grady wasn’t just going to give up so easily though, “If you want me to talk to mom and dad I’ll do it.”

“No, it’s not your fault,” Ryan stated. He was already grunting from lifting up the dumbbells. “It’s mine, if I wasn’t so small they wouldn’t ignore me.”

“Ryan come on that’s not–

“I need to grow bigger, then they’ll pay attention to me.” Ryan said through curls.

Graft tilted his head slightly, confused “I don’t think getting bigger correlates to them paying attention to you.

“I need to get so big, so they have to buy me new clothes,” Ryan went on. “How big was that Bob Paris guy, like 5’11? That’d be a nice height, right?” Ryan was talking, but he sure as hell wasn’t talking to Grady. His eyes were determined while his mouth prattled off. “Gotta get taller, gotta be taller. I want to be the center of everyone’s attention just like when I’m on stage.”

“Uh Ryan, what the fuck are you talking about?” Grady was absolutely sure cursing would get his brother’s attention. No dice. He walked to Ryan’s side waving an arm in his face.

“Need to grow…Hgghhhh…” Ryan threw his head back, never once letting up on his arms. His body stretched upward. Grady had to listen as the bones in his younger brother shifted and resized, from his spine to his legs. However, if it was painful Ryan didn’t let on, rather his grunts were sounding more like moans and whimpers. Small veins made themselves known on Ryan’s arms. With each arm curl, and pump of a vein, weight filled in his body. It kept him from looking gangly or malnourished as he took on a new height. Ryan’s pathetic pajamas however couldn’t keep up and ripped like cheap tissue paper. A new chest, with pecs that were undeniably definable from Ryan’s torso, spilled out into the room on display along with his own upper body.

Ryan’s shoulders stretched outwards. Giving him a broader stance to match with his rapidly developing body. Though his lower body was not to be out done. His shorts clung to his body like a second skinned now back with new thigh muscles. The seat of Ryan’s shorts inflated as he developed a muscular ass. They were at their limit and split, starting at the back with the release of the muscular globes in underwear till the tear came to the front. Both halves of the shorts simply fell off to the ground uneventfully. 

Last up was Ryan’s face, a vein became visible on his neck as his Adam’s apple began to slightly protrude. Then his head elongated, defining his jawline as his straight hair began to curl up. Ryan dropped both dumbbells on the floor. Loud clangs that neither of his parents reacted to.

Ryan’s breathing slowed down to a normal rate as he looked around the room as if lost. When he spotted Grady he asked, “Did you shrink?”. The voice was deeper than what Grady was used to. It was all too much, and Grady passed out. 

When Grady woke up, he was still in Ryan’s room. The PlayStation on the floor was the most obvious give away. He spotted someone at Ryan’s doorway doing chin ups using only his hands and the doorframe. The person was only wearing white briefs that did nothing to hide what he was packing in the front and back.

“…Ryan?” Grady whispered out.

The young man exercising, looked over to Grady then hopped down, He closed his door then rushed over. “Grady, welcome back!” his brother said happily in a deeper voice that was not his. Gady sat up in bed and tried to focus but it was hard with his brother’s crotch in his face. When he did look Ryan in the face. He was able to finally digest just how handsome his brother had become. No, it wasn’t just that. There was something more. Grady felt attracted to this new version of Ryan, but why? He looked at Ryan again. There was something off about what Ryan had grown into. His hair was curly for one; There was no way Ryan would naturally grow to have curly hair. Instead of looking like both their parents he kinda… Grady squinted… looked like Bob Paris. It finally clicked, that’s why Ryan looked so damn attractive.  Grady needed a moment. Did he take some edibles and forget?

Even though his mind was telling him to stop and take it all in, Grady got out of bed. “I’m gonna go wash the dishes. You stay up here until we figure something out to tell mom and dad about you growing.”

“Tell them? But they already saw me.” Ryan admitted.

“What, when?”

“When I washed the dishes for you. “Ryan smiled, proudly displaying his superbly white teeth. 

“Oh…thanks.” Grady said sincerely, “But what did they say?”

“They didn’t say anything except for ‘Hi’.”

“What?! I was just grounded for months, and you end up growing when I’m in the room. There’s no way they wouldn’t blame that on me.”

“That’s the thing they don’t actually remember me being small. They think I’ve always been this big and to be honest I feel the same way. Like I know this morning I was smaller, but I also feel like I’ve always been this big, maybe even bigger.” Ryan’s trailed off with that last spot.

Looking over Ryan’s body, Grady knew he was scared about what happened to his brother, but there was something else there. Envy. Grady wished he could have turned hotter overnight. Grady put a hand on his head before saying, “Dude it’s been bugging me for a while but where did you get the tighty whities? I thought you only wore boxers since that’s what MEN wear?” 

“Oh, come on Grady,” Ryan punched his brother in the arm. It was supposed to be playful and loving but his strength made Grady reel back a bit. “You know I only wear these or boxer-briefs. Helps protect the family jewels at the gym.”

Grady stared at Ryan dumb founded. “What are you talking about? Mom buys our clothes together. I know what’s in your dressers.” Then to prove it Grady walked over to a dresser shaking his head. Had everyone in the house taken edibles? Was his dad and brother still pranking him? Or was it a gas leak messing with their minds?  He pulled out Ryan’s underwear drawer, finding nothing but what his brother had described. Grady slammed the dresser shut, then opened it again. His eyes were certainly not playing tricks on him. “Wha– this…can’t be.” His fingers dove through the under clothing looking for boxers, any pair. 

“Told ya.” Ryan said.

Grady held up his hands, “Okay look, you and dad win. Whatever magician tricks, special effects, paid actors you’re using to pull off this trick is working. Consider me successfully gaslit and never going to do anything as stupid as what got me grounded in the first place.  Look, I’ve been on good behavior since we’ve been back. And is Mom in on it too? Is that why she started being less mad. I get it, I deserve it, but this is all too much. So, I’d like it if you could just turn back into my little brother. My mind is officially scrambled. “

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, this just happened. And I like being big. I don’t really want to go back,” Young man Ryan let out a long sigh, “but you are the best brother in the world so I can at least try.” Ryan closed his eyes and grunted, scrunching up his face. He was trying to forcibly make his body shorter.  His whole body began to flex as sweat appeared. Ryan opened one eye to look at Grady, “Is it working?”

Grady wasn’t sure what he thought was going to happen, even as Ryan appeared to be trying hard. However, the only thing that did happen was Ryan pecs started to dance. Left, right, then left again. It was slow at first but picked up speed the more Ryan struggled. When Ryan asked, “Is it working?” Grady had to snap his head back up. Being gay was such a hinderance sometimes. “I know what I’ve done to deserve this,” Grady said loudly so his parents could hear, “but it’s going a bit too far.” He brushed past Ryan heading for the door. He stopped dead in his tracks.

On the back of the door was the Charles Atlas poster from earlier. Instead of lying in the trash can. It was restored and brand new back on Ryan’s door. Grady should have guessed a weird poster could weirdly work its way back. Except now the Poster read: 

In only 6 days I can make you a man.

“Ryan, I threw this away earlier, right?” Grady asked facetiously. 

“Huh, no way man, that’s my Charles Atlas poster.” Ryan said proudly.

“The one you said was creepy at night, then I also agreed it was creepy at night.”

Ryan’s smile faltered, “Well…yeah.” His eyebrow furrowed as if he was trying to work that out for himself. But Grady wasn’t going to play stupid games and continue to get stupid prizes. He pulled the poster off the wall and ripped it in half. None of that ominous BS and certainly no more watching the poster change. Grady tossed one half in his brother’s trash and stuffed the other half into his pocket.  “Put on some clothes,” Grady said after taking a long look before walking out.  

He thought he exited all cool, until his brother knocked back on his door telling him he didn’t have any clothes that fit. After tossing a few outfits over to Ryan, he dismissed him. They could work out new clothes later.

Alone at last, Grady sat in his room weighing all the options. Perhaps when the incident happened, he fell into a coma. And now his mind was just running out of realistic plot ideas. The only reason that didn’t work was because Grady was sure he had felt genuine pain. And with all the bodybuilders it would have been one hell of an extended wet dream. Also, why would his dream turn his brother hot and not him?

Demetrius was hard to get a hold of, apparently, he had been trying to make up with Adrianna but was getting constantly shot down. When Grady was able to get past the endless whining, he shared with Demetrius the problems he was having.

“Well, maybe your house is fucking cursed. I go there and Adrianna wants to break up. A fucking curse!”

“Dude, I’m pouring my heart out to you and you’re making it about you with a joke.”

Demetrius scoffed, “I’m being serious here. Think about it. If most of the things in my house were burned and then mysteriously restored, my weird sensor would have been going off immediately.”

“Yeah, but the house being rebuilt is more like a good thing. The poster is just fucking creepy. Then there’s my brother…”

“What’s wrong with him? “

“For one he grew up. Like literally his body grew. He looks older than us.”

There was no response. “Are you fucking with me?” Demetrius said. “The house and the poster I can buy, but now you’re just trying too hard. You really had me going though. I need to go find Adrianna anyway.”

“No, No wait–

The phone call ended as Grady was left sitting alone in his room. Since his family was all on the weird path Grady was content to stay confined in his room. There were always more bodybuilders to search anyway…but before he could explore, his father knocked on his door and came in carrying a shoe box.

Mr. Elaliey had a dopey grin on his face. “You’re not going to believe this! I found my old bodybuilding photos from my college days. I was going to share them with Ryan, but he already went out for his afternoon run. You know how he is about his fitness.” 

Grady had a lot of questions on his mind. One, how did the photos survive the incident. If they were only in a shoe box, they definitely should have been gone. Two, Ryan was certainly not into afternoon running unless it was in The Sims or GTA. And three, ever since they had returned home his father’s over eagerness to share his bodybuilding life seemed to be increasing. Grady was appreciative in some respects; he’d love to learn more about his dad. But if his mom had been so against their dad sharing his life before, what was different now?

His dad pulled out the old pictures captured mostly on polaroids. He sat on Grady’s bed handing some over to his son. Grady eyed the shoebox and the photo. No singe marks anywhere.

“So, dad, where did you find these?” Grady tried to ask casually.

“Can you believe it; your mom asked me to go downstairs to change clothes to the dryer. While I was switching them over, I noticed this box sitting out. Ryan must have taken it out not knowing what it was, when he was getting more of my old equipment.”

All the dumbbells, barbells, and stupid ankle weights were already in Ryan’s room and the only things down there. So, what did they miss from before? Grady decided to look at the photos. There was a young version of Mr. Elaliey in all of them doing various poses. Each one labeled with a black ink pen on the white strip:

Front Double Biceps, Front Lat Spread, Side Chest, Back Double Biceps, Rear Lat Spread, Side Triceps, Abdominals and Thighs, Most Muscular, Vacuum Pose.

First impression left Grady shocked at how thick his dad had been. Mr. Elaliey had muscles, and he carried them well. The more Grady looked the angrier he got. His dad was a former hunk and could have helped Grady be one through high school and taught him how? But no, his father just let him flounder in that department, Ryan too, not that it mattered for him much anymore.

There were a few other photos in the box: his dad on stage, his mom and his dad laughing, Grady’s paternal grandparents in a family shot. “Wow,” Grady said out loud. This all truly was a family secret. He kept going through the photos, he spotted another pose, one buried under the rest. “Moon pose?” He said reaching for it before his father swatted his hand away.

Mr. Elaliey took the photo, “That’s just for your mom and me. Actually, maybe I should look at the rest and make sure your mom and I didn’t leave and other personal ones in here.” He gathered up his photos and ran out. 

Grady collapsed back on his bed. The next time he opened his eyes, it was already night. He got off his bed. His parents hadn’t called him for dinner? That was weird. He went downstairs and found a plate waiting for him. He happily scarfed it down before going back upstairs. Then he came to the top he heard the familiar sounds of his brother supposedly working out. Brady was so not in the mood tonight. He opened the door and his brother was sleeping peacefully in his bed. Walking in he searched for a radio that may have been broadcasting. He hadn’t totally dismissed this was an elaborate scheme to teach him a lesson. What was the lesson? He wasn’t sure yet. There was no sign of any radio.

“Oh, fuck this,” Grady went to his room and grabbed a pillow and blanket. He was going to get to the bottom of this. He walked back in and started laying down on Ryan’s floor. 

“Grady? What’s happening?” Ryan said, groggily. 

“We’re having a sleepover. Go back to sleep.”

“Oh cool, can you get the door tho?” Ryan asked before turning around and passing out.

Grady had hoped to keep the door open, but he could respect it wasn’t his room. When the door closed, he was greeted by the sight of a Charles Atlas poster, you have got to be…. Effing.  Grady walked over to Ryan’s trash; the half he had torn earlier was gone. Grady started to reach to tear it down again, but the look Charles Atlas was giving him once again stopped him. “Fuck it,” Grady got on the floor arms crossed, he was going to be as attentive as a watch dog, he decided. Though he found himself nodding off. Only an hour passed before he opened his eyes again. Grady was so out of it though he couldn’t make much sense of his surroundings. There was a person– No, it was undoubtedly a man– coming out of the poster on Ryan’s door. The man was entirely in black and white. Grady wanted to scream but he couldn’t find his voice. He pretended to still be asleep. The intruder walked but his footsteps were practically silent, which should have been impossible given his size. Hard for Grady to make out his face, but one thing he could see was the man’s face kept switching from being shaven to a full on beard. A trick of the moonlight probably but Grady had more pressing issues to worry about.  He was hoping the man was a petty thief and not anything worse. 

The intruder walked towards the brothers and Grady’s brain scrambled to think of a plan. The man had no interest in Grady, only moving towards Ryan. Grady was prepared to jump on the guy’s back, but there was light from the night sky pouring into the room in the space between the two brothers. The moment the man came into contact his form dissipated and took on the appearance of a smoky cloud. The man walked closer, and Grady could see eerie green eyes turn to face Ryan. A cloudy hand was placed over Ryan’s mouth. Grady screamed at his legs to move his arms to fight, but they wouldn’t respond. He was terrified. Some creature was going to kill his brother, and he couldn’t move. 

As Grady’s eyes went to Ryan’s sleeping form, his brother didn’t seem to be having a hard time breathing. In fact, it was more like the cloud was flowing into his mouth and nose. Then the monster was gone as soon as he appeared. Grady jumped up, there was no fucking way! He immediately tried to wake Ryan, but his brother wouldn’t rise. He immediately threw back Ryan’s cover. Ryan had gone to bed shirtless, wearing only Grady’s shorts from the clothes he’d given him earlier. Instead of seeing the 4 pack abs Ryan had gained, Ryan’s stomach was slightly distorted like he’d overeaten, or a faux pregnancy. There was a green energy pulsing from the center. However, Ryan’s stomach gurgled and churned loudly as the bulge got smaller and smaller until it was gone. 

Ryan’s eyes snapped open. There was a faint green glow that faded. “I just had the best dream… I was working out at the gym and…” Ryan finally noticed Grady was holding his covers up. “You checking out my bod?”

“Ryan, is that still you in there? You didn’t get possessed, right?” Grady backed up. From his brother.

“What?”  Why would I be posses–mmphfff…” Grady’s pillow collided with Ryan’s face. Ryan tossed the pillow off to the side. “Oh, pillow fight it is then!” he launched himself at Grady and tackled his brother to the floor. Grady genuinely believed he was fighting for his life until he realized Ryan was laughing the whole time. Eventually, Grady was able to pin Ryan, but he didn’t sense anything evil coming off his brother. A good chance whatever it was died in Ryan’s stomach. That wouldn’t be hoping for too much right? 

“I win, I guess?” Grady said, trying to catch his breath. Then, with a flip Ryan had Grady pinned to the ground. Ryan was now sitting on top of Grady’s lap holding his older brother’s wrist to the ground.

“You got one over on me, but once I start getting bigger. You’re not gonna have even the slightest chance.” Ryan closed his eyes. “Yeah, I hit a plateau, but once I start growing again. You’re gonna need help to pin me…, just gotta keep growing.”

“Ryan?!” Grady shouted. He tried to squirm under his brother, but Ryan’s thighs and hands had locked Grady in place. No matter how much he called out to his little brother, Ryan didn’t respond.

“Gotta keep going… Keep growing for the shows…for the fans…for myself.” Ryan muttered on leaning his head back while giving no leeway to Grady. “Hggrrh” Ryan bit his lip and grunted. He began to change on top of Grady.

It started with Ryan’s pecs, they bounced, they danced, until finally they began to heave themselves out. Two large shapes growing in tandem with the other. As if to stay in proportion, Ryan’s shoulders spread further apart. His whole body pulsed like a giant heartbeat. His biceps were next to pack on muscles. Thankfully, no sleeves had to be torn apart by their new size. Thought it was more than just his arms. Every single inch of Ryan was filling up with muscle. He had bulk, a true thickness to him now. Another row of abs made themselves appear, rising like dough. The swimmer’s type build Ryan had successfully morphed into a wrestler’s physique. Not finished, Ryan’s hair began to darken, the blonde curls becoming a medium brown. Stubble appeared on his jawline; it flew around his mouth and upper lips before thickening and becoming a well-kept beard. 

To see a person transform is one thing, to feel them transform is another. Grady had a front row seat as Ryan changed. The weight on top of him bared down as Ryan got heavier. Grady’s sides were compressed by Ryan’s thighs. Grady even experienced Ryan’s ass inflating in the back, while the bulge in the front of the short’s became more prominent. Ryan’s dick was slowly making its way up Grady’s torso. Wisp of hairs poked out between the valley of Ryan’s pecs. The hair grew out only slightly and left Ryan with a small patch of light brown chest hair. 

Grady was stunned the first time, and he had been only terrified this time, so up close and feeling the changes; he was turned on. Ryan didn’t look like a teen he looked like a young man. Barely even an Elaliey young man, a different man entirely. A man that belonged on one of the posters that decorated Ryan’s back door. A small part of Grady wished it was him experiencing the changes. Ryan was becoming that man that Grady wanted to be. Not to mention Grady’s boner was being squashed by Ryan’s ass. Two muscular globes were now bearing down on Grady’s crotch. Fine light hair began to poke out of Ryan’s legs and prick Grady’s thighs. Ryan’s body heat climbed from a smoldering warmth to a blaze in a matter of seconds as his body changed. 

“Wait,” Grady said under his breath. His thoughts raced. Ryan was becoming the man he wanted to be. Opening his eyes, Ryan released his grip. Grady had to actively try not to bust his nut. Ryan’s package had its own specific heat and weight on Grady’s stomach, just like his ass. Grady managed to shift his hips and get Ryan to roll off, now both boys were lying on their sides. Ryan had fallen asleep again while Grady needed to catch his breath and digest what happened. 

The sound of rustling wind filled the room. Grady looked around, none of Ryan’s windows were open. Suddenly he saw black smoke exit out of Ryan’s mouth reforming human shape with the same green eyes, glowing from a dense fog. Grady remained completely still. He did not want to engage whatever the thing was. Slowly it turned from facing the brothers, as it stepped out of the moonlight its form solidified once more. It had a human body again and Grady finally realized it was naked. He watched the intruder walk away. The arms, the back muscles, the ass, the cock Grady could see dangling between its legs, certainly looked human. Standing in front of the poster the man stuck out a hand, and it pressed onto the poster Like water giving way, the man’s hand sunk in then began to force more of his body in. 

The moment the man disappeared, Grady hopped on his feet and ran to the poster. He had to know what was going on. However, on the back of Ryan’s door was not Charles Atlas, rather it had returned to a Steve Reeves poster. Stranger than that, Steve Reeves had a similar build to the creature who had just left. Not to mention Steve Reeves’ poster was black and white, the creature was black and white. Grady wondered if the poster was some kind of portal. He stuck a finger in the middle. The poster didn’t give way, but it did ripple as the poster changed back to Charles Atlas. 

In only 5 days I can make you a man.

The number had changed and it sent a shiver down Grady’s spine. He was even too afraid to reach for the door and walk out. Grady returned to his place on the floor, threw the cover over his head and waited for morning to come. Sunlight came in through the window and Grady could just feel his body get lighter, as if the presence he had felt in the room was gone. He poked his head up looking at Ryan’s door. The poster was the same as always, but it just felt like a simple piece of paper. Even if in his mind Grady knew that wasn’t true.  

Grady stopped staring at the poster when his brother began to stir awake. Ryan stretched on the roll, before realizing where he was. He caught sight of Grady and smiled “That was the best sleepover. We haven’t had a pillow fight in forever!” Ryan ran his hands down his face, to wake up. His hands stopped halfway as his eyes drifted to them.” My hands are huge!” He said excitedly as his eyes went even lower. “I got bigger!” Then his hands traced around his jawline. His eyes went wide “I have a beard!” jumping up the ran to the bathroom. Grady was right behind him, knowing their parents shouldn’t see Ryan. Though at the door, Grady stopped and looked at the poster. He ripped it down again. Probably wouldn’t work but he’d go further this time. 

He put the ruined poster in his room, then went to join Ryan. Grady stopped in the hallway to study Ryan’s profile. Ryan was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, door wide open, poking and prodding at his beard. He pulled on the hair and winced. It was very real. Grady’s eyes went lower looking at the expansion Ryan’s body had gone through packing on muscle. Grady’s shorts hung so close to Ryan’s body now they were nothing more than glorified boxer-briefs. As for the actual underwear Ryan had, they were probably lost between his ass now. Watching, Grady now had a full view of his brother in the daytime. By Ryan’s side profile, the image of the invader came to mind. Not just because the situation involved Ryan, but Ryan with that beard, and light brown hair. He looked like the intruder. That was it, a connection formed in Grady’s head. Ryan looked kinda like Steve Reeves.

It was the beard. Definitely the beard. Grady pushed the annoying thoughts aside and walked into the bathroom. “We have to shave this thing off before mom and dad see.” Grady wasted no time slathering Ryan’s face with shaving cream. Ryan laughed the whole time saying, “It tickles.” In all honesty, Grady had never shaved a true beard before. All he had at times was peach fuzz, or bouts of scruff. There was nervousness in his voice as he tried to instruct his manlier brother on how to shave. Ryan was very receptive and watched carefully, before taking the razor and finishing up himself. He finished it up expertly, not a cut or scrap anywhere. Then without provocation he wiped off his face and applied aftershave. 

Once he was done, he turned to his brother. “How’d I do?” he asked with a side smile.

The smile on Grady’s face grew unintentionally. in response. Ryan’s face was so handsome; simply looking at it happy made Grady giddy.  When Ryan’s face grew confused waiting for a response, Grady answered. “You look good, younger.” Shaving the beard had been the right call. Now he didn’t look drastically different. The muscles were still there, but oh well Grady couldn’t solve everything. They’d deal with it when the time came. 

However, Ryan was so energized after shaving he immediately wanted to go on a morning run. Grady tried to get him to wait at the house and talk about last night, but Ryan wasn’t having it.  Once dressed. Grady caught Ryan heading down the stairs to go outside. Ryan was still wearing borrowed clothes from Grady. Though the sweatpants barely came past his calves and the shirt fit like an oversized crop top.  The clothes Grady had were made for a leaner fit and had a hard time wrapping around the new muscles Ryan had gained. 

Ryan left and Grady didn’t waste any time before rushing into his own room. He balled up the poster and put it beside his desk. There was once a time he would have solved this with a…well he promised himself not to be that guy anymore.  His finger dialed rapidly on his cell phone as he waited for a response.

“Demetrius, It’s not a curse, it’s a ghost. There’s a fucking ghost in my house and it’s possessing my brother at night and….

“Dude, slow down. Do you know what time it is?” Demetrius responded groggily.

Grady took a deep breath and slowly explained the events of last night. When he was done Demetrius let out a chuckle. “That was a good story but you gotta stop with this. I know you want me to get over Adrianna, but I know there’s still a chance. Also, your crazy conspiracy doesn’t help. I’m going back to bed. Talk to you later, alright?”

The call ended. Grady wanted to scream. Why were he and Demetrius even friends? All he could think about was Adrianna even after breaking up. He couldn’t even spare 2 minutes of actual concern. If Adrianna got under someone else, would that make Demetrius less of a self-absorbed ass?! Grady clenched his fists. He needed to be kind, breakups weren’t easy. But it would have been easier for Grady to show more compassion if Demetrius hadn’t been ignoring him for months.

He sat in front of his computer and typed in. 

‘My brother is being haunted by Steve Reeves’

…and Google didn’t give him anything but useless search results. Although Grady didn’t know why a bodybuilder was haunting his brother. He was sure that it had been Steve Reeves he had seen last night.  He thought maybe trying other phrases would work. 

‘Haunted poster’

‘Steve Reeve mimicking Charles Atlas poster’

‘Poster that changes itself.’

‘Poster haunted by a ghost.’

There were no results for any of his searches. Grady threw his head back frustrated. Maybe he did need to channel his inner bad child to beat whatever was haunting Ryan. 

“Breakfast!” His father shouted from downstairs. Grady hadn’t even realized his parents had woken up. Demetrius had consumed all his time up and for what?

Breakfast went by well; his parents were talking happily about something Grady had no interest in. He was just glad that all animosity towards him, mostly from his mom, even the subtle bits seemed to have disappeared. Halfway through, Ryan came through the front door. And his parents said nothing as Ryan went upstairs to go shower before coming back down and joining them. Mr. Eliaey began to make more food just as Ryan sat down to eat. Grady got up to wash the dishes, but his mom waved him off, “We got this. It’s summer, go enjoy yourself.”

Grady stood confused as to what to do. His mother either had really good sex with dad last night, Or Grady had gotten into more trouble, and she was just waiting for him to figure it out. Ryan ate eggs and bacon, looking curiously at Grady.

“Dad, I need new clothes.” Ryan said before returning back to his food.

Mr. Elaliey turned from the stove about to say something but stopped. He seemed to take a real good look at Ryan and notice something was certainly different. “Yeah, tomorrow we’ll go shopping…” Mr. Elaliey’s voice trailed off turning back.

 Slowly Grady walked away from the table before retreating upstairs. His parents were weird, Ryan was weird, the poster was weird, the house was weird! “Fuck it,” he thought. Drastic times called for drastic measures. He could be bad for the day.  Grady grabbed the Charles Atlas poster. The guy wasn’t so tough in the daytime. “Fuck you!” He ripped it in half and shoved it into his metal trash can. There was a match box that Grady kept under his bed. Of course it shouldn’t have been there post incident, but if everything else in the house was okay, logic dictated. However, Grady was not about to set a blaze in the house, not again.  Grabbing a bucket of water. He took his match box; trash can and marched out the house. He walked far away from his house from where anyone could see him.

Then he lit the sucker on fire.

As the flames rose. Grady smiled. How long had it been since he felt the warmth of a good blaze? To see the fire consume was a mesmerizing experience. Hell, the way it danced at night was indescribable. Grady was an arsonist. He never felt more alive than when he was lighting a flame but after one terrible mistake, he realized just how terrible his obsession with fire had gone. But this time he could use it to destroy that poster once and for all. Fire burns, fire cleanses. 

He poured a bucket of water on it. The old him would have watched the flame go until it died out, but Grady was much more aware of the dangers. His old ways could have started a forest fire. He sat and waited for an hour to see if the poster would vanish or reconstruct. When that didn’t happen, he returned home, with the empty bucket and the posters remnants in his trash can.

Upon opening the door, his mother was sitting right in the living room with the TV on. Before she could even ask, Grady fessed up, “Mom, I lit this on fire.” He closed his eyes expecting to fully be yelled at, only to be met with, “That’s nice dear.”

“Mom, did you not hear me? I BURNED something.”

“Oh, did you get hurt? “She turned to him, placing a hand over her chest looking concerned.

“No, but this is the part where you ground me again until I graduate college or something.”

“There’s no need to be dramatic dear if you’re okay. I’m sure everything is fine.” His mom turned back to TV.

Grady stopped. Nope, not in a hundred years, or a million would his mom ever say that. With the poster out of the way Grady had to find out what was going on with his parents. Then back to Ryan. Though with no poster Ryan should have been safe for the moment. Grady made his way upstairs. As he got closer to the top, he heard a grunt emanating from his brother’s door. Now was his brother actually working out? Or was it a trick of the house? Grady decided he didn’t care. It was the most mundane thing happening in this house, he could let it slide.

Then he heard a girl moan. Grady stopped. Another feminine moan. He walked over to Ryan’s door and knocked. He was shocked when Adrianna answered the door. Fully clothed at least.

Grady stepped inside, “What’s going on in here?” He saw Ryan sitting on the floor with textbooks and papers scattered about. 

“I’m just tutoring your brother.” Adrianna said.

“O-kay but you haven’t tutored Ryan in a year. And you don’t think he looks differ–“

“Grady?” Ryan spoke up, “Can we talk about this later? I really need to understand these equations if I’m going to take Advanced Calc next semester.”

Grady left, closing the door behind him. The noises started up again, and Grady knocked on his parent’s door. How were his parents not hearing this? Or at least his dad. Mom was downstairs watching tv. Fine, but what was dad doing? When his father didn’t answer, Grady slightly pushed the door open. His dad wasn’t inside, but Grady did see several of his father’s bodybuilding photos were posted up. There was something Grady needed so he snuck inside and got it returned to his room. Nothing his father would miss in the near future. 

Stepping back into his room, Grady was unsure what to do with himself. If he kept stressing over the weirdness, his hair would fall out. He needed to relax.  A few weeks ago, he was so sure,  the only fun he’d get would be playing games with Ryan. However, Ryan was gushing over exercise and their parents didn’t seem to care any longer. Hell, if his dad’s bodybuilding pictures were up did she not care about that either?

With no one to stop him, Grady decided to leave the house and enjoy freedom for a bit. By the time he came back, nighttime had fallen. He walked up to Ryan’s room hearing grunts. He opened the door to find Ryan on a workout bench lifting with earphones in. The bench was where Ryan’s gaming computer had been, but he didn’t see it anywhere. That could have been fine on its own; perhaps Ryan disassembled it, but Ryan’s entire room was off. For one it was larger as if to match Ryan’s body size and while he still had his PS5 almost everything else Ryan found entertainment in was replaced with exercise and weight training.

Was the ‘ghost’ of Steve Reeves trying to make his brother workout? Grady just couldn’t understand.  What was the point of that? It just didn’t make sense. Ryan popped out his earphones catching sight of Grady. “Hey, just wanted to say, thanks for putting my poster back up.” 

Grady’s blood ran cold as he closed the door only to find the poster back in place. He knew he shouldn’t have been surprised, nothing mattered except the reality of the situation. “Alright we’re doing another sleepover, this time my room.” Grady stated. Ryan was down for it and after getting a quick shower found himself on Grady’s floor.

As Ryan did some night exercises Grady questioned him, “Earlier I could have sworn I heard moaning coming from your room. I almost thought,” he laughed, “You and Adrianna were having sex. Weird right?”

Ryan shot Grady a smile, “Not too weird. I mean I was daydreaming something like that myself”

“Daydreaming?” Grady repeated, he chewed on that word for a minute. “You know sometimes when I walk by your room, I swear I hear you going in on your weights. Are you daydreaming then too?” Grady was being a bit of a smartass with how he let the question hang.

However, Ryan didn’t pick up on it and answered honestly, “Daydreaming at night… Nah I’m just dream-dreaming then. Though, I have been having a lot of dreams where I’m at the gym and I’m just going at it with a trainer. 

“A trainer? Who?” 

Ryan shrugged his shoulders, “Don’t know, I can’t really picture their face. I feel like it changes.”  

The brothers talked for a little more before Ryan went to bed talking about the importance of a good night’s sleep for exercise and rest from exercise. Grady rolled his eyes and watched his brother drift off into slumberland.

Grady took out the pair of handcuffs that he ‘borrowed’ from his parent’s room earlier and strapped his brother to the bed. It was only around one of Ryan’s wrists and one the leg of the bed. He didn’t want to fight his possessed brother. Grady stayed awake watching over his brother. He almost believed nothing would happen until he saw black smoke at the bottom of his door. Then the black-clouded figure stepped through the door, green eyes and all. Then it turned solid as its form became flesh. No longer was it black and white, but color. However, Grady was not looking at Steve Reeves, but another bodybuilder his dad had gone on about Jim Morris. Tall, black and muscle tits for days.

Caught off guard by the different appearance, Grady froze, but just for a moment. He hopped up off his bed. “Stay away from my brother,” He grabbed his trash can. Grady braced himself as the ghost or whatever stepped through him; He didn’t even breathe. Jim Morris bent down towards Ryan and was swiftly sucked inside like the night before. Ryan’s stomach blew out, before shrinking back down with gurgles. A moan escaped Ryan’s lips before his body expanded. Ryan’s skin darkened into a tan as his hair turned into a medium brown.  Grady had to rush over and free his brother’s wrist from handcuffs. Ryan’s body simply packed on the pounds. His pecs transformed even fuller, and his physique went form a gifted wrestler to a full-on linebacker’s build: large, muscle bound, and thick.

By the time Jim Morris crawled out from Ryan, Grady had moved to his bed. He had truly fooled himself into thinking he could handle this. He watched as the handsome black body builder walked away. 

—

In only 4 days I can make you a man

Everything went to shit once the day actually began, after their dad’s wakeup call and the mandatory family breakfast. All Grady did was use the restroom. Then when he came out the familiar moans coming from behind Ryan’s door we back. He could hear Ryan and a female moaning. Shaking his head laughing Grady walked in preparing to point out the situation with Ryan. When he opened the door he caught sight of Ryan’s bare ass just before Ryan threw a sheet over himself… and Adrianna?  Grady’s mouth fell open.  Adrianna tried to fix her hair. Ryan had really been having sex.

“Grady, what are you doing here?” She asked, pulling the covers up to her chest.

“You mean in my own home, in the morning?” Grady retorted. His eyes drifted to Ryan. His little brother had a face that was more akin to a puppy who got caught being bad than annoyed at Grady’s intrusion. “This is fucked.” he backed out. He closed the door and went on his own.

He thought the right thing to do was tell Demetrius. Though he wasn’t sure. The two had broken up and Adrinna could have sex with whoever. But there was something fucked up about being with her ex’s best friends brother. Grady texted Demetrius that he needed to come over now, that Adrianna was here and it was important. Not one to leave a poor girl out to dry, Grady shouted into the door Demetrius was here.

When Demetrius arrived, the only thing he wanted to know was where Adrianna was. Grady’s parents were out back relaxing and completely oblivious to the shit show about to happen. Adrianna appeared at the top of the steps, clothes a mess. The look of satisfaction on her face made it obvious she’d gotten a good dicking.

“Adrianna did you and Grady?” Demetrius looked at his friend.

Grady rolled his eyes, “OH COME ON! You know I’m gay.”

“If you must know,” Adrianna walked down the stairs. “It was Ryan.”

“Ryan? Are you kidding me? He doesn’t know how to please a lady.” Demetrius scoffed.

“He very much does,” Adrianna smiled, “It’s what separates the men from the boys.” she brushed past him and left.

Demetrius’ face went red then he rocketed up the stairs, Grady was right behind him. “Dude wait.”

“I’m going to kill your brother. He thinks he can sleep with my girl!” Before Demetrius could even get the door Ryan opened it. He was there naked in all his glory. He had no shame or fear as he looked down at Demetrius. It was as if every part of Ryan, his body, his cock was a challenge to Demetrius. Demetrius stepped back, “You’re Ryan?” He turned back to Grady. His face was perplexed, but then it softened, “Oh okay.”

“So, we good?” Ryan asked.

“Uh, yeah” Demetrius turned around, and Ryan closed the door. “Man, your older brother is intimidating.”

“Older brother? He’s my younger brother.” Grady corrected.

Demetrius grabbed his head. “That sounds right, but it doesn’t feel right. I could have sworn he was your younger brother too, but once I saw him. He was different. And my head feels like it’s changing to understand that.” Demetrius brushed past Grady. 

“This isn’t right. I told you your house was fucking cursed.” He marched down the steps. “No, you got the fucking devil in here or something.” 

“Okay look, I get that your breakup sucks. But now you see that I could use some help here.”

“Sorry, but you are on your own with this!” Demetrius walked out the front door.

“Dude what the fuck!” Grady spread his arms out then slammed them to his side once Demetrius was gone. Demetrius and his girl weren’t together anymore, and his best friend still couldn’t find the time to….

Grady stopped that train of thought. He had wanted Demetrius to spend less time with her. Not exactly in the way it happened but he remembered wanting it so much.

—

It was 7 pm the following night, Demetrius finally answered his phone.

“Dude, I know what it is!” Grady shouted. “At first, I thought it was just a creepy poster or a ghost. But then when you left, I had a spark of inspiration that maybe I had activated a genie without knowing it. That led me to Djinn. but that still wasn’t it.” 

Demetrius cut him off, “Are you still going about your house? Can we not talk about it? My head still feels a little woozy.”

“Look, I just want you to know. You deserve it after what I did.” Grady paused before continuing. “I remember you had said ‘devil’, but I certainly didn’t summon anything. Then I thought about something lesser like a demon. That’s when I found it. It’s called a Traumesser.”

“A true master?”

“TRAU-MESSER” Grady repeated. “It’s known as a pleasure demon. They can shape shift and create pocket dimensions to appeal to the fantasies of their targets, which they then use to feed off their happiness.”

“And how do you know all this?”

“Dude, I’m literally reading this off my computer directly to you. This is exactly what I’ve been going through. I think I’m the target. The demon is feeding off of me. The reason our house was restored so perfectly, I think the demon did it. This place is the pocket dimension.”

“So, you’re saying you wanted me and Adrianna to break up…?” Demetrius paused for a moment. “And there’s something up with Ryan right? I can’t seem to remember what it was, but I remember you complaining.”

“I don’t think the demon can affect me directly and I don’t think it can understand my desires 100%. Took me a while to piece it together, but it’s certainly giving me what I wanted.  One, my parents, especially my mom, started being nice to me again. Two, my parents weren’t hounding my back every second. Though it seems the demon interpreted that as doesn’t pay attention to their children at all. Neither of them care about Ryan or what’s going on with him. Which leads into my next theory about the demon not being able to affect me. That poster kept changing into these handsome hot guys and I wanted to be like them so badly. Instead, Ryan is changing into them? And now my dad has his old pictures up on the wall that my mom didn’t like, but I was interested in.”

“Uh huh?” Demetrius made it obvious he had a hard time believing it.

“OKAY, just stick with me. Then with you and Adrianna. I wanted to spend more time with you so I think the demon thought the best way to do that–

“Was it to make us break up?” Demetruis cut him off. “You cannot be serious! Dude, you said this is a pleasure demon. How is any of this making you happy? Are you happy?”

Grady exhaled sitting on his bed. “Dude, the past few months were hell for me, and I deserved every bit of it. But I was so tired and over it. The truth is, it wouldn’t take much for me to be happier than I was then. Heck, maybe that’s why the demon chose me. Mom and dad are weird, Ryan keeps changing. I’m scared, but I’m happy too. Ryan’s transformation is the worst of all, but it’s also kind of hot too. Like I want it to happen to me. It should be happening to me.” Grady fell back on his bed.

“Grady that’s fucked up. You should be thinking about how to get rid of this thing… and how you’re going to get me and Adrianna back together.”

Grady ignored the latter half of the comment, “I know, I know but that’s the thing. There aren’t really stories on exorcising Traumessers. As far as demons go, they aren’t malicious or malevolent. They’re quite benign. Feeding on me doesn’t drain me or kill me. It’s more like I’m the sun and they’re using photosynthesis.”

“So, you’re just going to let it continue to mess with you?”

“I don’t know.” Grady slapped his free hand over his face. “This isn’t a thing I can ‘beat’. Then again, I’m not exactly okay with my fantasies coming true.” Grady braced himself. He would have to try something before this all ended. 

––

In only 2 days I can make you a man

Grady stood in Ryan’s room early in the morning. Staring at the poster. No need to be afraid. He knew what was going on now. Though with the new information he had gathered, the poster seemed very targeted. ‘In only ___ days I can make YOU a man’. As if the demon was promising Grady a man, at the cost of his little brother. Grady shook his head before he could spiral down that path.  He was reading way too much into it. Then he retrieved the sage from his pocket and lit it on fire. It was euphoric watching it set ablaze, but Grady couldn’t focus on that. He walked around the entirety of Ryan’s room hoping to spiritually cleanse the place. 

It was early so Ryan was out on his morning run and his parents… well he honestly had no idea where they had disappeared off too. Grady let the sage burn away completely.

NOT A SINGLE THING HAPPENED. Just wasted time. Grady heard the front door to the house open. Then with the sound heavy footsteps there was no secret to who it was. Grady stepped back as the door flung open. Ryan had his earphones in and was staring down at his phone. He stepped into his room before smelling it. He looked up, catching Grady, who gave an awkward wave.

“Did you light incense in my room or something? Smells funny.”

Grady, had to admit he even felt like a younger brother, simply staring at Ryan. As if his older brother had caught him red handed. However, Ryan simply shrugged it off then came into his room. Then it hit Grady that Ryan was completely shirtless wearing a pair of Grady’s shorts. Sure, Grady had given him an outfit, but now Ryan had gone and gotten clothes himself. He’d also done a terrible job because he looked dangerously close to booty shorts, or had Ryan just grown that massive.

“You know what,” Grady said, sighing. “If it’s up to me to save everyone I’ll do it. And it starts with me buying new clothes since mom and dad are completely useless on that end.” More importantly he needed to think straight and couldn’t do that with Ryan walking around, shirtless. 

“Take a shower and meet me in the car in 15 minutes.” Grady marched downstairs only to find his mom’s car parked outside. When Grady was grounded his driving privileges were provoked but going by the logic of the last week, that was probably lifted too.  While Grady sat behind the wheel, imagine just taking his brother, finding his parents and driving off vowing never to return. But that was never going to happen. 

When Ryan came outside, Grady’s mouth dropped. Ryan had put on their Dad’s cop uniform. As he got into the car he smiled at Grady. Grady sat in silence.

‘What? It’s the only thing that would fit me.” Ryan flexed his arms, purposefully displaying even the sleeves were at their limit. “…though I’m not sure I should be this big “Ryan stared at his hands flipping them over. Part of Grady wanted to affirm Ryan’s spoken thought and say, ‘you’re supposed to be my LITTLE brother’, but he kept quiet and pulled off. 

The quest for clothes was boring, uneventful, and took nearly two hours. Grady had watched Ryan go into a dressing room and come out to show various clothing options. After the final outfit Ryan went back to put on his dad’s uniform. Grady sat dreading the return home. He had no game plan, the sage had failed, fire had failed. Were his desires doomed to take over his family’s life. Grady stopped zoning out, noticing Ryan had not returned. He went to the dressing room to see what was going on with his brother. 

The door to Ryan’s dressing room was unlocked, so Grady peaked his head inside. Ryan was standing in front of the mirror grunting. The back of the uniform ripped as Ryan’s shoulders went further apart, broadening his back even more. His height went up again as more muscles packed onto his body. The sleeves ripped, Ryan’s ass spilled out the seat of the pants, his thighs tore the seams to shreds. There was no salvaging the uniform, it was nothing but tatters. Ryan’s chest sat out covered in a fine felt that went over his abs 

“Holy…shit.” Grady sighed. He quickly grabbed whatever clothes he could off the rack and threw them at Ryan. After that it was another hour of looking for even bigger clothes. 

When they pulled up to the house, Grady sat outside in the car while Ryan entered back in. Grady spotted his dad’s car, so his parents were home.  Bracing himself for the worst, Grady got out of the car and went inside.

“Oh, hi sweetie,” His mom called out, “You’ll never believe it. Your dad took me dancing this morning.” Mr. Elaliey came out of the kitchen with a smile on his face. Grady’s mouth dropped and his dad looked stunning. As if time had rewound giving him back the muscles he’d had all those years ago. Even his face looked less weathered by age, but more mature than his college photos.  His dad was officially hot!

It was true Grady had wished to have seen dad back then, but seeing him was another beast entirely. Would everyone in his family end up hot based on his desires except for him?  Grady wanted to save his family, but he had to admit there was a small part of him that was just jealous. Was it worth it to ‘save’ his family? They weren’t in true danger. In a way weren’t his desires a blessing.

Grady smacked himself in the face. What the hell was he thinking? Of course it was bad. No one had asked to be changed. “Alright then.” Grady came to a decision; He wasn’t going to wait out the countdown. He‘d confront the demon head on and finish it tonight.

For twenty minutes Grady stood outside Ryan’s door that night. His palms were sweaty; his breath was ragged. He was the only thing making noise throughout the entire house. His parents and brother had all fallen asleep. And then like volume being turned up on a radio, the sounds of weights clanking at a gym faded in from the other side of Ryan’s door. Ryan’s dream had started. Grady didn’t know when the demon would come out but he wouldn’t have too long. He opened the door, walked in and closed it. Grady walked halfway to his brother’s bed before a chill went up his spine.

He spun around on his feet. The demon was right behind him. Already in the moonlight it was a black cloud one more. Grady put his arms out to protect his brother. The demon tilted his head as if he curiously regarded Grady. Then the Demon moved forward. 

“Stay back, I’m warning you.” Grady’s voice wavered but he didn’t move. However, the demon didn’t stop either. It simply stepped into Grady. The young man wanted to scream but he couldn’t hear his voice, the black smoke had muffled all sound. A decent portion of the smoke even found its way down his throat into his stomach.  Grady wanted to puke. The sensation felt sick. This time inside the demon, Grady could hear all his own thoughts about all the bodybuilders his dad had introduced him to. They were less than pure to say the least.  The whole interaction lasted shorter than a second but felt like an eternity. 

The moment he was out of the demon, Grady fell backwards on the ground. His vision was fading as the black fog stepped towards Ryan, Grady tried to get back up but his muscles refused. Then Grady was out. 

When Grady awoke, he knew something was wrong. For one, he wasn’t in Ryan’s room anymore. He wasn’t even in his house. And his clothes were no longer his pajamas but gym clothes. Grady sprung to his feet. It certainly looked like he was in a high-class gym. He sprinted towards the closet door to leave. He froze staring outside the glass exterior. While the inside of the gym appeared to be lit normal. The outside was a black circle where the sun should have been, with a deep blood-red hue around it, a demented eclipse. Everything outside the gym was covered in red light. Even that only went on so long before it faded into darkness. 

Grady stepped backwards walking deeper into the gym. He didn’t say anything, but he knew it looked like the apocalypse outside. He needed to find the owner and call home. What the hell happened while he was out? What started as a stroll, then a brisk walk, to a jog to a full out sprint. The gym was very large and very empty. Then Grady slammed into another body and fell on his ass looking up and spotted Ryan leaning over him.

“Grady, what are you doing here?”

“Ryan! Thank god I found you. I was getting creeped out. Where are we?”

“At the gym?” Ryan said as if it was completely obvious.

“I know we’re at the gym, but have you even looked outside? It’s–

“Yeah, yeah a beautiful day,” Ryan waved him off, “Look I’d love to continue but my trainer is waiting for me and I’m already late.” Ryan took off running past his brother, leaving Grady in a daze. Unsure of what would happen next Grady cautiously followed, though he chose to walk. As he approached the direction Ryan went, he began to hear grunting. As he got closer, it was like he was standing on the other side of his brother’s bedroom door.  Grady came to a weight room Where his brother was not alone. There was someone else talking to Ryan, encouraging him and giving him pointers, though it was all so faint under Ryan’s deep huffs. 

It was exactly how Ryan described his dreams and exactly what Grady heard from the door. The stranger was another bodybuilder wearing a baseball cap, who Grady couldn’t seem to pin down. In fact, the guy’s body didn’t even appear stable, as his form was ever changing, yet it all still felt natural. The thing about dreams, people, places, and things could all be vague concepts or ideas not fully fleshed out and the dreamer would still interpret the information as full. Had the door been projecting Ryan’s dreams this whole time? Only one way to know. Grady stepped in and he was ignored by Ryan, but the stranger immediately turned his head. 

“Hey, start your stretches!” The stranger called out. Grady couldn’t make out the face under the cap but there were two piercing green lights coming from under it. Grady was ready to run but his body had other plans as it began to stretch as instructed. The stranger strolled over, clipboard in hand, “I was thinking we could get you on the bench, then maybe do some deadlifts. Let’s see you got a bit of…”

“I know you’re the demon. Why are you doing this?” Grady’s eyes shot daggers at the man.

The man stopped whatever he was about to say and pressed his lips together. He held the clipboard to his chest. “Don’t be like that. You were having fun too, right?” 

“Huh?”

The demon pulled his clipboard back out and looked down at it, “Let’s see, your brother got a bit of Bob Paris, grew a bit, got that wonderful curly hair. Then Steve Reeves came in, packed on more muscle, put some hair on his chest and darkened it to brown. Next came–”

“Wait, what?!” Grady said. He had an inkling that was the situation but to have it confirmed was shocking.

“You haven’t noticed? Those legends passed on their traits to Ryan. And now you get a piece of one too.” The stranger let out a sigh, “Thanks for ruining my fun. “ The man snapped his fingers and suddenly Grady was laying on a workout bench. 

“But–” Grady’s arms shot up and began lifting the weight above him. The bar weighed a ton but Grady couldn’t stop himself.  His head turned to see what weights were on the side. He couldn’t tell it was a made up weight, freaking dreams. Grady’s arms felt the intense weight though his arms refused to let the bar crush him. Up and down the bar went as Grady began to sweat. The minutes ticked by. His breathing was irregular; Grady needed more air. On cue his lungs begin to swell and his chest along with it. Larger chest and lungs for maximum air capacity. The rest of his body was not to be out done. Though his arms felt like noodles they too began to morph. Veins popped up under the skin, pushing blood through the shoulders up into the forearms in hands. Grady’s grip on the bar changed as his hands cracked and snapped into larger forms with a better handle on the bar. 

The bench disappeared and next Grady was on a leg press. He was going hard. Not that he had a choice, his body was still stuck on autopilot. As his leg pushed on to the press, Grady could feel his ass start to grow. A tingling sensation that went down into his thighs, then legs, until his feet got it. Grady knew his limbs were stretching but couldn’t do a damn thing about it. His toes were starting to meet the end of his shoes. Then his feet just tore straight through them. Grady sat his head back as his thighs and legs pulsed, growing larger muscles to match his new body.

Then the weights disappeared, Grady’s legs fell down, and he was just lying on a padded wooden bench, in a completely different area. His clothes were gone with only a towel around his waist.

“Time to relax.” The demon’s voice called out and stepped into the room from a back door.

“Where’s Ryan?”

“Well, your brother got a bit more of the guy then you did so he’s still going, but this is about you.” The demon lathered his hands in oil before reaching for Grady’s face and softly going in on his scalp and head. To the young man’s surprise, the demon’s touch was quite gentle, if not forceful. 

“Why are you doing this?” Grady managed to get out.

“You already know I’m a pleasure demon. Does this not bring you pleasure? The demon’s eyes met Grady’s and in an instant Grady was staring at Bob Paris, then Steve Reeves, finally Jim Haislop, all in their prime. The demon nodded towards the tent Grady was sporting under the towel, then turned back into his featureless self.

Grady would have covered it if he had control of his muscles, “I don’t mean the massage. I mean to my family,” 

The demon moved down to his neck and shoulders. “Oh that.” The demon said uninterested. “You’re a smart kid, you already know it was to feed off your desire.”

“Why me though?” Grady was trying hard to pretend like he didn’t like the massage but the demon was a master.

“Because the guilt you felt over what you had done was so enormous, it fed into a sadness you didn’t even know you were creating.” The demon looked up and smiled. “For me to bring happiness to someone like that would have fed me for years.” The demon reached for Grady’s left arm, “I was really going to wow you on that last day, going out with a bang and everything.” the demon sighed, “But I guess I ‘ll just have to be satisfied with being full for a year.” He looked back at Grady, “You really ruined it for us, you know, stepping into my path like that.”

“Whaddya mean,” Grady’s words slurred as his body began to relax.

“Listen kid, I can’t feed from people who I’ve transformed. The moment you let your mouth open while I walked past you this thing was done.” The demon grabbed Grady’s right arm. “Nothing to do but to finish up the night. Maybe I’ll go to Australia next.” The demons said the last part more to himself than Grady.

“When you leave will everything go back to normal?” Grady mustered the energy to ask.

“Normal? This is the new normal. Everything is reality based on your desires.” The demon stated.

“But, Ryan’s huge and mom and dad are…,” Words were getting harder to get out.

The demon sucked his teeth, “Yeah, I’ve never had parents so, perhaps I went too far with their carelessness. But your brother, you got to admit. I created a masterpiece. Like taking playdough and making the statue of David.” The demon looked around proudly. “And it all happened here. Well, not here but the weight room.”

“The sun’s gone out,” Grady said, wondering if his thoughts now just drifted out.

“Oh no, that’s just my realm. I mean this gym is your brother’s dream, but completely under my influence. Just like your house. A pocket dimension within a pocket dimension. I’m sure your dad’s around here somewhere.” The demon walked around the table to get Grady’s left leg. The demon kept going on and on, but Grady couldn’t focus on the words. The fingers digging into his muscles felt so good. As the young man’s consciousness drifted in and out, he soon found himself on his back, the demon rubbing all over him talking.

“The way you are now I don’t think you’ll appreciate everything I’m leaving you with. Though I can tell you’ll enjoy it.” The demon moved up to Grady’s improved glutes. “Don’t worry I have one more reality change that’ll set everything right. Like I said, I’m a pleasure demon. I want you to be happy.”

—

Grady woke up with a jolt. He was in his room. He couldn’t remember anything from the night before. Though his muscles were on fire. Had he gone too hard at the gym? He got out of bed rubbing his neck before moving onto his chest. His pecs felt extra big today. He found himself playing with them more than he meant to. Strolling out of his room shirtless, he did consider knocking on the guest room to see if Uncle Ryan was awake, but decided against it. He didn’t even know why he’d try to wake up his uncle in the first place. Then again, was his uncle even there? 

The front door slammed shut and Grady had his answers as two voices filled the stairs. Uncle Ryan and his dad came in from their morning run. “Hey guys,” Grady said walking down the stairs.

“Woah look at you little nephew,” Uncle Ryan pulled him into a hug, “You trying to finally start putting on some serious muscle? Don’t want to be the small guy forever.”

That was easy for Uncle Ryan to say he was a 6'7 bodybuilding behemoth. He was the giant in the family with genes that seemed to have dropped the gods themselves. Though Grady’ father was no slouch himself at 6’3”. Though even as brothers, people would often mistake Uncle Ryan as Mr. Elaliey’s dad.  A testament to how masculine Uncle Ryan looked, and eternally youthful Grady’s dad looked. Grady was released and the two men walked into the kitchen as the doorbell rang.

“I got it,” Grady said, opening the door. He was immediately handed a package that he had to sign for. He couldn’t believe it came this early in the morning. If his dad was addicted to online shopping again, mom was going to flip. Though surprisingly the package had his name on it. He began opening it up, and by the time he reached the kitchen pulled out a Mr. Olympia poster. 

“Where did you get that from, is that a custom?”  Mr. Elaliey asked. 

“I…have no idea. The delivery dude just dropped it off,” Grady said. “But he had the prettiest green eyes.”

Uncle Ryan huffed, “Oh boy, don’t get obsessed over a stranger.”

Mr. Elaliey laughed, “Well ever since I gave him that Bob Paris poster, he’s been going crazy. You should see his room.”

“Really?” Uncle Ryan asked.

“No!” Grady shouted. His face went a scarlet red and ran upstairs to go ‘restructure’ his room better, poster in hand.