Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:19:31 -0800 (PST)
From: Chase Donovon <chase_donovon1@yahoo.com>
Subject: Welcome Back to Salem (Welcome to Salem Chapter 8)

 This is a modern continuation of my story 'Welcome to Salem', written back
in 2000/2001 and last updated in April of 2003. Days of Our Lives and all
characters belong to Corday Productions and Sony and this story isn't meant
to imply anything about the sexuality of any of the actors who plays these
characters.



 "Bet you wish you could meet a guy that hot, huh?" my roommate Josh
asked. The question caught me off guard, since I'd been staring intently at
my computer screen, enjoying the latest shirtless scene from Casey
Deidrick, who played Chad DiMera on Days of Our Lives.

 "Yeah, me and every other gay guy in the world," I said, laughing. "You
know me too well."

 "Hey, it's not hard to figure it out when you're sitting there with a
puddle of drool in front of you, staring at him like he's dinner," Josh
said.

 "So sorry, am I disturbing your straight sensibilities?" I joked. I was
lucky to have such an easy going roommate in the dorm, someone who didn't
even bat an eye when I told him I was gay. It was certainly making my
freshman year of college a lot easier.

 "Nah, I look the same way when I'm watching Jessica Alba in action, like
I'm ready to climb right into the movie and fuck her," Josh grinned.

 Something about this last comment, though, struck a chord with me.

 I'd come out of the closet at 15 and was lucky to have an incredibly
supportive family. The path had been paved, in fact, by my mom's younger
brother, my uncle Chase, who'd come out when he was in college and I was
just a little kid myself.

 Chase and his partner, Wes, had been real role models for me and I loved
them both. They seemed like the perfect gay couple and I never doubted that
my uncle was happy and completely normal, which was probably why the story
he told me a few years after I came out was so surprising.

 It was the holiday season and he and Wes had both had a few drinks. Wes,
in fact, was already sleeping it off. Chase and I were shooting the shit in
the living room as he messed around with our DVR. He'd seen the backlog of
Days episodes and grown strangely quiet, finally asking if I still watched
the show.

 My uncle Chase was a fan of Days of Our Lives. Both he and my Mom had
grown up watching it, as had my Grandma, so I had no worries about
admitting that I watched. "As long as Chad is on the show, I'm not missing
an episode!" I'd said with a laugh.

 "I used to feel the same way about Shawn," Chase said quietly.

 "Yeah, Brandon Beemer is a total stud," I said. It was nice to be able to
talk hot guys with my Uncle.

 "No. I mean, yeah, he is, but I was talking about the Shawn before him,
Jason Cook. I had such a crush on him." My Uncle looked a bit odd and
sounded like he was talking about someone he'd actually known.

 "I came so close. Just another hour...."

 "What? You met Jason Cook?"

 "Shawn. I met Shawn. I met all of them."

 "Huh?"

 "Can I tell you something, Nate, without you thinking I'm totally crazy?"

 "Sure."

 My uncle Chase stared at me for what seemed like a long time, as if trying
to judge the truth to my offhanded assurance. Finally he looked straight at
the blank TV screen and began to talk.

 "I was in Salem. Just like I'm here, now, sitting in this room with you. I
know it sounds impossible, but I was there. One night, I went to bed in my
dorm room, and then next morning I woke up in the Kiriakis mansion as
Philip Kiriakis. It wasn't a dream, or a delusion. I was there, Nate."

 "Okay," I said, waiting for a punchline. My uncle was one of the most
grounded people I knew. There had to be a punchline.

 "It was amazing. I lived in the mansion, ate at the Brady Pub, went to
Salem High, and I had sex with Jason, Austin, and Brady. Really, really hot
sex. The best sex I've ever had in my life, though if you tell Wes I said
that I'll have to kill you. It was out of this world, probably because I
was out of this world," Chase laughed quietly to himself, still staring at
the TV screen.

 "I was so close to making a real connection with Shawn. It was
happening. We were staring in each other's eyes, the air between us was
electric, I could feel it, and then... I was in my dorm room again. I was
me again."

 "You woke up," I said.

 "No! It wasn't a dream. It wasn't a horny delusion, either. It was
real. Oh, I told myself I'd been dreaming, at first. Once I'd become myself
again, I tried to dismiss it as a dream I'd woken up from just as I was
about to get what I wanted. Don't we always wake up just as we get to the
good part? But then-"

 He grew quiet. I waited, wondering if this was all an elaborate practical
joke on me, though my uncle Chase wasn't really that kind of guy.

 "Then?" I finally prompted him.

 "Grandma Betty died. Your Great Grandma. We all took turns sitting with
her at the end. She had lucid moments and moments when she just rambled
on. I was the one sitting with her when she finally passed away, and just
before that, she told me something."

 "What?" I asked, completely confused. What did Great Grandma Betty have to
do with uncle Chase thinking he'd fucked soap opera characters?

 "She was lucid at the end. She recognized me and smiled, patted my
hand. Then she said that there was something she'd never told a soul, and
it was now or never. She was the first in our family to watch Days, back
when it started, you know. She got your Grandma hooked, and Grandma got me
and your Mom hooked, and now you watch, too."

 "Yeah, I know. What did she tell you?"

 "She told me that, for several months in the late 60's, she was Alice
Horton."

 "What?"

 "Nate, I'd never told her, or anyone, what had happened to me. Why would
I? I thought I was either crazy or just very, very lucky to have had such a
hot dream. But Grandma Betty, on her death bed, told me that the same thing
had happened to her! She'd woken up one day, in Salem, as Alice Horton. She
lived Alice's life for months, and then one day she just found herself at
home again, plain old Betty, and no time had passed. She'd never told
anyone, but she knew that it had been real."

 "Are you serious?"

 "Yeah. It was such a relief, Nate. I'd always known, deep down, that what
happened to me was real, but I couldn't believe that, because it would mean
I was crazy. Now I know I wasn't nuts. I really was in Salem."

 I didn't know what to say to that, and not long afterward my Uncle had
stumbled up to bed. In the year that had passed since then, he'd never
mentioned our talk and I wasn't even sure he remembered it. I'd decided
that it was just drunken fantasy and hadn't thought much about it since,
though it still remained in the back of my mind, especially when I watched
scenes with some of Salem's shirtless hotties.

 "That would be nice, huh? To just climb right in and have your way with
Mr. Soap Stud there?" Josh grinned.

 "Yeah, I wish," I said, feeling a bit strange about the direction the
conversation had taken.

 "I've got a final tomorrow, man, so I'm pulling an all nighter at the
library. I'll leave you alone to pull something else while staring at
Mr. Soap Suds," Josh winked. He grabbed his backpack and headed out,
leaving me alone in our dorm room.

 I watched the rest of the episode, but my mind was on that conversation
with my uncle. What if it really had happened to him and to my Great
Grandmother? What if it was something that ran in the family, some secret
magic ability? The idea was crazy, but it was still nice to fantasize about
finding myself in Salem, surrounded by some of daytime's hottest guys in
the flesh.

 After daydreaming for awhile about that, I yawned and looked at the
time. I had a seven am final, but since it was in Film Studies I wasn't too
worried about studying. Instead, I set my alarm and then crawled into bed
and felt myself starting to drift off.

 A moment later, or so it seemed, I heard a banging noise, like pots and
pans in a not so distant kitchen. My eyes flew open and I winced at the
unexpected brightness. Daylight already? Had I been asleep?

 "My final!" I sat up in a panic. It was way too bright for seven a.m. Why
hadn't my alarm gone off? I sat up, furious with myself and wondering if I
could get Professor Lewis to agree to a make up exam.

 Something was wrong, though. I wasn't in my dorm room. I'd never seen this
room before in my life.

 "What the fuck?!" I shouted, fear mixing with confusion. A minute later,
the door opened and a blonde woman stuck her head inside.

 "Watch the language! Your little brother and sisters are out here!"

 My mouth dropped open in disbelief. It couldn't be. "Sami Brady?"

 "You can call me Mom, thanks, and like I said, watch the language! I don't
care if you are in college now. And don't you have class this morning?"

 "I have a final," I mumbled, my heart pounding.

 "Well, you'd better get out of bed and get to Salem U, then," Sami said,
closing the door behind her.

 "Salem U." I said the words under my breath. I got out of bed, looking
down at myself and knowing without a doubt that I was no longer me when I
saw the pecs straining beneath the Salem U T-shirt I was wearing. I myself
had a nice body, but from what I could make out under this tight shirt,
this was clearly a soap star body.

 I could see a mirror on the back of the bedroom door and I braced myself,
squeezing my eyes closed before stepping in front of it. I slowly opened
them and found myself staring into the incredibly hot face of the actor
Chandler Massey or, as he was known in Salem, of Will Horton.

 I put a hand to my face, and in the mirror Will did so as well. I slowly
raised my shirt, getting a close up look at the tight body and amazing pecs
underneath. I raised a hand to gently squeeze them, and my new reflection
followed suit.

"Holy fucking shit," I mumbled, and this time I recognized my voice as Will
Horton's. "I'm in Salem."