I tried to relax and act nonchalant as I sat and waited.

Amy wasn't even due for another twenty minutes, but I kept checking the time on my phone, in between sips of my latte. I had granny's journal in my purse too, and I pulled that out and tried to distract myself by reading it.

Nothing worked though. My heart was racing slightly, I was anxious. Part of it was worry that Amy wouldn't show up. Part of it was worry that she would. And another part was out of worry for what would happen next.

I tucked granny's book back into my purse and had another sip of my drink. Then I checked the time again, and finally chided myself for being so anxious. I was treating it like a blind date.

Except I couldn't shake the feeling that it really was a blind date. My stomach did flip-flops again as the whole situation played out in my thoughts again.

I'd been depressed and lonely ever since Christine dumped me. I needed a distraction, something to get my mind off my ex. And my bright idea was to try and summon a Goddess, because I wanted to ask her to help me find a new girlfriend.

That didn't happen, nothing last night went according to plan. Amy looked sort of like the Goddess I was trying to summon, but not quite. And I had no idea who she was or where she'd come from, apart from the U-of-T shirt that suggested she was from Toronto.

Then this morning my phone suddenly turned itself on and called her number all by itself. That freaked me the hell out, but fortunately I recognized her voice and realized it was her. I had no idea how that worked, my best guess was some lingering trace of the summoning spell was still trying to connect the two of us together.

I was kind of excited about that, it actually seemed almost too perfect. Except when we talked on the phone Amy sounded really confused and upset.

And the thing she said about looking different, that worried me. I couldn't help feeling like maybe I messed something up. I thought I did the runes and the summoning spell properly, but maybe not? Maybe I shouldn't have had three glasses of wine before attempting the ritual.

On the other hand, I had no idea how Amy got involved. Maybe she was performing some kind of similar ritual, or maybe she'd already contacted the Goddess. Perhaps she was some kind of intermediary, like a cleric or priestess or something. Maybe her grandmother left a journal behind as well. Maybe her grandmother knew mine, wouldn't that be a laugh.

I took a deep breath to try and force myself to calm down, then had another sip of my drink. I was just setting the cup down on the table when the cafe door opened and she walked in.

For a second or two it was like the whole world just faded away. Suddenly the coffee shop and everyone else disappeared into the distance and there was just Amy and me. She looked absolutely stunning. Her silver hair shone brightly against the black of her shirt. And her shirt showed off the curves and cleavage of her chest. Her tight jeans accentuated her hips and legs.

Her eyes swept the room and settled on me, and my breath caught for just a moment. I waved, she nodded in response. Then she turned away, and suddenly the coffee shop and everyone else was back. I watched as Amy walked up to the counter. With her back to me, I got a good look at how her jeans also drew attention to her perfectly padded behind.

A minute later, coffee in hand, Amy came over to my table. She set her drink down then slipped into the seat across from me.

"Hi," she said. Her voice was just as soft and pretty as I remembered from last night. Talking to her over the phone didn't do her voice justice. "So you must be Theresa?"

I found myself staring into her beautiful violet-coloured eyes for just a few seconds, before I nodded "Yeah. I mean yes, I am. But you can call me Tess."

"Ok Tess," she replied. "So I'm hoping you have some answers? Can you explain what happened to me last night?"

My mood dipped as I realized she seemed irritated or upset. And despite how amazing she looked, she acted sort of self-conscious. She was sitting slightly hunched over, like she wanted to hide herself.

"Oh," I sighed. "Um, ok. Well, I was performing a ritual to summon a Goddess, but somehow got you instead? I assume you're already involved with Her somehow, or maybe you were doing some sort of similar ritual?"

Amy gave me a look like she thought I was crazy. She shook her head "I wasn't doing anything even remotely similar. I was at home alone playing a video game. Then suddenly there were weird lights in the air, and next thing I knew I was surrounded by candles and you were kneeling in front of me. Then I passed out, and woke up back home in my bed."

I found myself staring at her again, but this time it was in shock and confusion. "You were just playing a game? You weren't praying, or performing any rituals or anything? Did you do something like that earlier? Or recently?"

"No!" she stated.

"What game was it?" I asked. Not that it mattered but I needed to buy some time, as I had no idea what to say or think now. It made no sense at all, my ritual shouldn't have pulled some random coed out of her home.

Amy dug into her purse. She pulled out her phone and started tapping and swiping. She finally turned it around and I found myself looking at a screenshot.

"It's called 'Gods and Gorgons', it's a new fantasy MMO. This is my character."

The person on the screen bore a striking resemblance to Amy, with the same silver hair and purple eyes. But where Amy was in tight black jeans and a cute t-shirt, the character was clad in a sort of medieval equivalent of a black silk halter top and a short black skirt. She had knee-high black leather boots on her feet, and she held a long ornately-carved wooden staff in her hands.

Seeing that staff in her character's hand reminded me again of granny's description of the Goddess.

"Cute," I said with a smile. "So you made your character look like you?"

Amy blushed and she shook her head, "No! Your magic or whatever... Whatever happened last night, it made me look like my character!"

"Oh," I frowned. That left me wondering if it was just her hair and eyes that changed, or if anything else was different.

I noticed Amy was looking really stressed now. Like on the edge of a breakdown kind of stressed.

I watched her for another half minute then finally asked, "Amy? Can you tell me what's wrong? Like, I get this is weird and strange, especially if you weren't actually trying to get involved with the supernatural. But you seem to be taking it really hard. I know you're worried about how you look, but can't you just dye your hair back to its original colour? And maybe you could get coloured contacts, to make your eyes look normal."

She stared at me with an expression I couldn't decipher. Finally she sighed and ran her hand through her hair again then leaned closer.

Her voice was just above a whisper as she told me, "It wasn't just my hair and eyes ok? It was everything. Everything's changed. Even my clothes. Even my ID for fuck sake! My drivers licence has a new name and picture on it!"

My heart was racing again and I had a cold feeling in my stomach as I stared at her. I had no idea what she meant by 'everything', but hearing her clothes and her name and ID were all different threw me for a loop. Added to the fact that she wasn't messing with anything supernatural, it was starting to scare me that maybe this was my fault. Maybe I did this to her somehow.

It took me a few seconds to find my voice again and I asked quietly, "So your name's not really Amy? Was that the old name? Or is Amy the new name?"

She shook her head and sighed, "Amethyst is my new name. That's... I named my character Amethyst. Now I look like her, and that's the name on all my ID."

I sat back in my chair and just stared at her. I felt more anxious as I picked up my latte and drained the last of it. Finally I asked her, "Who were you before?"

She frowned and looked down at the table. Her cheeks went pink again, and I got the feeling she was embarrassed of the answer.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, ok?" I told her.

Amy nodded slowly, "Maybe later. All this is... It's overwhelming."

She looked lost and confused, she needed help. I had that cold heavy feeling in my stomach that whatever happened to her it was my fault. I was playing around with magic, somehow she got drawn into my summoning and it did stuff to her that I didn't even know was possible. I had to try and help her.

I leaned forward and reached out, and gently put my hand on hers.

"Hey," I said softly. "I know you're dealing with a lot right now. I want to help, ok? I don't know what happened, I don't know why it happened to you, but I want to help you."

She looked up at me, and she looked like she was on the verge of tears. She looked so lost and vulnerable it almost broke my heart.

Amy gulped then nodded slowly, "Thanks Tess. I really appreciate it. I don't know where else I could turn, who else I could talk to about any of this."

Then she went quiet for another minute or two, and it looked like she was working to get her control of her emotions and composure.

Finally she looked up at me and said "There's something else. I saw my roommate this morning, and he didn't notice anything wrong with me. Like he came into my room and talked to me, and he acted like everything was completely normal. I don't know if he thinks I always looked like this, or if maybe he didn't noticed I'd changed..."

I had no idea how to respond to that. "Do you think he couldn't see how you look now? Like did he still think you were your original self? Or do you think he somehow remembered you as always being like this?"

Amy frowned, "I have no idea! And I don't even know what's worse? Like what if you and me are the only ones who see me like this? What if everyone else sees me as... As what I used to look like? Or does everyone else see me like this and assume this is who I've always been?"

She sounded more upset as she added, "And that was just my roommate! What about my family? Will they even know me? Will they recognize me?"

My stomach lurched again but I gave her hand another gentle squeeze and said "One thing at a time, ok? Try not to panic."

Amy slumped back in her seat. She looked overwhelmed again.

She was staring at the table once more as she said, "I don't know if I can handle this. I don't know if I can handle anything right now. I'm supposed to be at work on Monday morning, but I don't think I can even do that. Are they expecting the old me? Will they know me? Do I even still have a job? It's all too much."

"I'm sorry," I sighed. "I'm going to help though, ok? I'm going to help you figure it out. I promise."

She looked up at me with a frown and asked, "What about this goddess person? What do you know about her? Can she help somehow? You said you were summoning her right? So you know how to contact her? Maybe she did this to me?"

"Yeah," I blushed. "I don't really want to talk about that in public though. Maybe we could go somewhere a little more private..."

I hesitated briefly as I wondered if I should bring her to my place. On the one hand she was a stranger, I knew almost nothing about her. On the other hand my attempt at magic already pulled her into my home and turned Amy's life upside-down. I felt another lurch of guilt.

However it happened, the bottom line was I tried to summon a Goddess and instead dragged Amy into this and messed up her life. This was my responsibility.

"Would you mind coming back to my place?" I finally asked. "We can talk there. Uh, no roommates or anything, so it's private."

Amy frowned, then nodded. "Yeah, ok."

We both got to our feet, and she led the way out to her car.

PurpleCatGirl

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