It was just like vaudeville; I just wish we hadn't been our own actors and audience. Adam was standing there, frozen like time had stopped at the moment he had opened the door. I stood up and wanted to go to him but the threatening aura emanating from him made me understand I'd better stay where I was. Dazed, in an almost robotic gesture, he took a few steps inside the apartment and closed the door then turned at us again as Z-dam was standing up by my side, both of us wearing only our underwear and shirts. Adam looked at the both of us before he finally started talking:

"I guessed I missed an episode—I, I just saw Viviane. She told me she would call you soon."

The eyes of both alter-egos met and Adam glared at Z-dam before he looked at me again. He then sounded like he was talking to himself, as if to convince himself about what was going on:

"Cheating on me with myself—I don't even know how to react to that."

"She did nothing wrong." Z-dam intervened. "She only left in order to forget you because you hurt her. And I'm the one who consoled her. Not you."

He wrapped his arm around my waist possessively as I was praying we could go back in time, even just a few minutes ago.

"Let he go."

"No. She's mine, you hear me?"

He tightened his grip on me up to the point he could almost scratch me through the cloth.

"I love her. And she loves me too, even though I have all your faults!"

"Leave her alone!"

"Let go of me, Z-dam."

These words I had just said made Z-dam's grip freeze on my waist and I freed myself from it and went back to Adam. As he ended up facing the both of us, Z-dam in his turn looked completely stupefied. His stare kept going back and forth between Adam and me.

"Morgane—please-" I heard him beg with a weak voice.

I felt a lump on my throat, which worsened when Adam put his warm hand on my shoulder.

"I think you'd better leave now, Z-dam." he added calmly.

Z-dam kept the same calm expression as he put his clothes back on in front of us with unbearable slowness. He then walked towards the entrance, not without letting his bilious yellow eyes stare back at me, then Adam, one last time. I instantly noticed how sick they both looked now: both of their faces were sunken and marked with deep black circles under their eyes. Finally, without threats or violence, clenched teeth or fists, he left the both of us as we stood there, listening carefully until we couldn't hear the sound of his boots in the building any longer.

I then turned towards Adam whose hand had left my shoulder and whose eyes were now staring at nothing. I raised my head in hopes of catching his attention.

"Adam-" I whispered shyly.

He bowed his head.

"Viviane told me it's impossible to cancel the spell. I made her promise to call you anyway."

I knew it already. That's why the page I had stolen was in the book of forbidden spells. Adam walked away from me in order to pick up my clothes on the floor. My brain seemed to be turned off. For several minutes, all I could do was barely pronounce a few syllables:

"Adam, I, I"

"Get dressed."

I obeyed his order docilely. Once I was dressed in my outfit of yesterday again, he invited me to sit on the couch and held my hands in his.

"Did he hurt you?"

"No—he didn't force me, I did it all by myself." I added, still in wait, full of hope and fear at the same time.

He stared at me intensely. The one I considered my most precious, most faithful ally- my creation and, at this moment, the holder of my destiny, brought me closer and put my head on his heart, sighing.

"I'm the good guy, remember. Of course I forgive you, stupid."

Hearing the muffled, regular sound of his heart against my ear, I let tears flow on his shirt and he stroked my hair until I fell asleep on him. I knew definitely not what was ahead of us, but Adam's decision had been the best so far: my meeting with my ex-best friend would surely help me to clarify our situation.