Grant woke up with a splitting headache. He raised his hand towards his head, and for some reason, it felt heavier. He looked at it carefully, and he realized that something felt wrong. It was white … pale white, instead of black... Huh? How was that possible? What the hell was going on?

He struggled to sit up, and as he looked around at what was supposed to be his room, that’s when it stuck. He wasn’t in his bedroom! The bed looked weird, the dressing table … there was no computer anywhere … or his desk … or even the blankets he was supposed to have been under. What about the sofa bed?

Everything had vanished or been replaced by these unfamiliar objects, or rather, he was in the wrong room. Yes, that was it! He was in the wrong room, with the wrong skin color … somehow…

He struggled again to get out of the bed. Since he always went to the gym, why was it so difficult to sit up or get out of bed? As he stood there, he saw the reason. He didn’t know how it was possible to grow a pot belly overnight, but somehow, he had managed to do it. Wait until the guys at Guinness World Records hear this. But … what the hell?

He walked slowly, as he surveyed the room again. There were no mirrors anywhere, and there were no reflective surfaces either … apart from a silver tray left by the dressing table. He violently grabbed the tray, causing all the tea cups and the teapot that was on it to fall and crash onto the nicely tiled floor.

The sun already shining through the maroon curtains, and with the little light that went through, he saw it. At the back of the tray, he saw something that looked like a face … and of course it wasn’t his! The issue was, when he raised what he thought was his hand to touch his face, the hand touched the face being reflected in the tray!

Instead of the bald head he was used to, his head was full of black hair. That wasn’t the only problem! Instead of the handsomeness he had before, it had been replaced by what could only be politely described as ugly.

“WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK????”

***

Sebastian finished cleaning the hallway. He sighed, as he thought about his fate. His family had served the Lovewoods since their first-generation ancestor, and they were always proud of this fact.

His father served the current Lord Lovewood, and as unfortunate as it was, he had been assigned to serve the youngest son of Lord Lovewood. Because the lord loved his youngest son, he spoiled him a bit too much, and this caused the son to become ungovernable.

The Lord had three children altogether, the eldest being a son, followed by a daughter, and finally, the ungovernable last-born son.

As he was thinking, there was a loud crash … which reminded Sebastian that he had left tea cups inside the young lord’s room. He looked at the sun shining through the large windows. The young lord had woken up early … well … it was late in the day but comparing with the previous day, he was early.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

And then came the scream.

Sebastian left the broom, and with a sigh, headed towards the young lord’s room. When he opened the door, the young lord was sobbing while slumped against the bed.

“Are you okay sir?” he asked.

The sobbing continued, and for a full ten seconds, there was no reply. And then slowly, the young lord turned his head, and asked, “Who the fuck are you? And what the fuck is going on? How the fuck did I get here?”

Sebastian almost threw up! He had seen the young lord’s antics firsthand, and this time, he was overdoing it.

“It’s okay sir. Let’s go downstairs so you can have some breakfast, alright?” Sebastian picked up what had remained of the tea cups, and put them on the tray, which was lying on the floor.

Afterwards, he picked up the tray and went to the kitchen. Something was not right. He couldn’t place it, but it felt like the young lord was not his usual self. Well, his usual self was worse than this but … he seemed different. It wasn’t the sobbing; he was used to that. It looked like the young lord had given up … somewhat. Maybe he was thinking too much.

****

“Let’s go through this again, shall we? My name is Arthur Lovewood, and I’m the youngest son of Lord Aldus Lovewood. Did I miss anything?”

“No, sir. But if I may ask, why haven’t you touched your food?” the butler asked.

Grant shook his head at the question. With a body like that, just looking at the food made him lose his appetite. Also, how was he supposed to swallow food at the realization that he wasn’t himself anymore?

“Why am I not staying with my father again?” he asked the butler, who looked annoyed. Anyone would be, if they were being asked such questions.

“Sir, you already know the answer to this question”, the butler sighed.

“Right, say I don’t. Let’s say you’re spreading rumors with the maids, or some town person, who’s not me. What would you tell them?”

The butler hesitated. “Umm, sir, is everything alright?”

Grant was now getting angry. He always hated it when people evaded his questions. If it wasn’t because he didn’t really know what was going on, he would have fired the butler. He always fired people who evaded his questions … or who didn’t know the answers.

“I’m not going to lie to you, right now I’m extremely pissed, and it would be wise for you if you’d start giving me answers without asking me questions. Are we clear?” Grant threatened, with a very serious look on his face.

The butler flinched. “Yes sir.”

“Right, now, tell me why I’m here. Don’t hide anything from me!”

There was a sigh, and then the butler began to explain everything to Grant. As he did, Grant’s … or rather … Arthur’s face changed color multiple times. He wanted to know everything, but what he heard was crazy. Initially, his face turned red with anger, as he heard the story of why he was in this backwater town. From red, the face turned pale white again, which was its original color, and as the butler explained, it turned blue, and so on.

“You didn’t leave anything out, did you?”

“No sir, I did not.”

Arthur appeared to be thinking. When he was still Grant, since his company went public and hired another CEO, he rarely thought … rather, he never needed to solve any problems, he had people do that for him. Now, however, he was Arthur, and he had a huge problem. The unfortunate part was, there was no one to solve it for him.

He rose up, “Where’s the bar?”

“The what, sir?”

“The bar … you know, where people drink alcohol?” Arthur asked.

The butler looked confused. “Umm sir, we don’t have such a thing here.”

“Okay, then where the fuck is the alcohol?”

Arthur looked like a ten-year-old throwing a temper tantrum. A very fat, ugly looking ten-year-old.

“What is alcohol, sir?” the butler looked even more confused.

“Is there any beverage that makes people drunk?” Arthur decided to pardon the butler by explaining.

“Do you mean wine, sir?”

“Yes, bring me a lot of it!”

The butler looked conflicted.

“What?”

“It’s too early to be drinking sir”, the butler replied.

“Are you my father?”

“No, sir.”

“Then bring me the fucking wine!!”

“As you wish sir”, the butler replied, before leaving the dining hall.