[Image: A young white woman, outdoors, with chest-length straight blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a white sleeveless top and black shorts. She is smiling.]
I first met Amber about a year and a half ago, when I moved to Milwaukee for graduate school. She was beautiful, and smart, and her confidence was stunning. I had been admiring her from afar for a couple of weeks when she asked me out on a date, and of course I said yes. I'm pretty sociable, and I've been told I'm "cute" enough myself, but at first, I couldn't understand what a woman as wonderful as her wanted with a guy like me.
Yep, that's me. I'm 24, I swear.
After our first date, though, Amber and I agreed we wanted to go on another one. And then another, and another. Before long, we were officially a couple. She showed me love in a thousand ways, and I reciprocated as best I could. A few months ago, we moved into an apartment together, and I was looking forward to what the future would bring for us.
Our shared life would be turned upside down, though, in a way I could never see coming. The story starts about a week ago, in early April, when Amber unpacked a family heirloom and put it on our coffee table as decoration. It was a small statue - of the Roman god Janus, Amber told me - that she had brought from her old apartment. "I first found it in the attic of my parents' house," Amber said. "It was buried deep in other stuff, so I guess my parents weren't interested in it. I kind of like it, though. The two faces are charming, in an eldritch way."
Three days later, Amber left for a small family reunion in Richmond. I was too busy with my studies to come with her, and though we talked on the phone every evening, I missed her physical presence. I had gotten so used to seeing her face, kissing her, sleeping next to her every night. She would only be gone for ten days, so it was nothing I couldn't handle, but it weighed on me just the same.
The fateful event happened on a Saturday afternoon. I was sitting on the living room couch, idly scrolling through social media on my phone, when I came across a photo that Amber posted from her trip. I sighed, and said idly to myself, "I wish I was with her right now." Then everything went dark.
When my senses returned, I was standing in a park I didn't recognize. Everything looked more colorful, somehow. My whole body felt strange, like I had been stretched and squished into a different shape. I looked down at myself, and my heart skipped a beat in shock as I saw a clearly feminine figure, wearing different clothes, and complete with the outline of breasts under my shirt.
"Dani? Are you okay?" Amber's voice asked from beside me. I turned to look, and sure enough, there she was - only, she was taller than me now. That name she called me - oh God, was I somehow controlling the body of her sister Danielle, all the way over in Richmond?
[Image: A young white woman, outdoors, with chest-length straight brown hair, wearing a dark green long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans. She is smiling.]
It was that thing I said, wasn't it? I said I wanted to be with Amber, and technically, I got what I wanted.
"Amber, it's me," I said in an unfamiliar voice. "It's Brandon. I'm... in Danielle's body, somehow." It occurred to me that the world must look more colorful because Danielle's eyes, unlike my own, were not red-green colorblind. So this was what normal color vision looked like.
Amber looked at me like I was crazy. "What are you talking about?"
"I... I can prove it!" I said, thinking fast. "Ask me something only Brandon would know."
Amber started asking me questions about experiences that we'd shared with each other, but not with anyone else. I answered each one correctly, but the skeptical expression on her face held its ground.
After a few of these questions, while Amber was pausing to think of another one, her phone started vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out, looked at me, and said, "It's from 'you'."
"I'll bet you it's Danielle in my body," I said.
Amber answered the call. "Hey," she said into the phone. She listened for about ten seconds, her eyes growing wide. "Danielle's claiming to be you, too," she said into the phone. Her eyes narrowed again. "Is this some kind of prank you two are playing on me?" She went back to listening, then said, "No, it wouldn't really be a fun prank for you, would it? Hold on, let me put you on speaker."
After Amber did so, I moved closer to the phone. "Hey, Danielle," I said awkwardly.
"This is the weirdest thing ever," said the phone. It sounded like a recording of my voice that I had never made. "How the hell did it happen?"
"It... might be my fault," I said. Amber raised her eyebrows. "I wished out loud that I was with Amber on her trip. I didn't expect it to be granted, though, and certainly not like this!"
"But who granted it, then?" Danielle said. "Or what?"
"If you're telling the truth..." Amber began, "...then let's think. If the explanation is something we can even find, it has to be something specific to us, and it has to have started recently. Otherwise, there'd already have been a bunch of idle wishes making crazy things happen. But what... Dani, where was Brandon's body when you switched into it?"
"In your apartment's living room, I think," Danielle said. "I'm still there."
"What if it was the statue?" Amber said. "The one I put on the coffee table. Dani, can you get close to the little two-faced statue on the coffee table and wish to undo the switch?"
"Okay," said Danielle. There was a brief pause. "I wish for Brandon and I to switch back to our own bodies." Nothing happened.
"Did it work?" Amber asked after a couple of seconds.
"No," I said, and Danielle concurred a second later.
"I got the statue from our parents' attic," Amber said to Danielle. "Brandon and I will go ask them about it, just in case it was involved. Until we figure out what's going on, don't make any more wishes, just to be safe."
"Okay," said Danielle. "Can you stay on the line for a bit, though? I don't want to be left alone like this." I could relate. Being in Danielle's body felt all-around awkward.
"Of course," Amber said, though her heart didn't sound fully in it. The thought of a blood relative in her boyfriend's body might have been making her uncomfortable. She started walking and motioned for me to follow her. "Don't worry," she said to both of us. "We'll find a way to fix this. After all, something as crazy as a body swap can't only happen once, right?" She didn't sound wholehearted about that assertion either.
As Amber and I were walking, presumably to her parents' house, I noticed that being in Danielle's body hadn't diminished my love for Amber at all. I was pretty sure the real Danielle was only into men, but to me, Amber was just as beautiful - sexy, even - as ever. Maybe even more beautiful and sexy, now that Danielle's eyes were showing me her literal true colors. Amber, though, wasn't smiling at me or holding my hand the way she usually would - but who could blame her? I looked just like her sister!
I sure hoped that Danielle and I could get back to normal, or Amber might never again see me the way I saw her. Not only would I lose my body, I'd lose the love of my life!
(Continued in Part 2.)
Excited to see where this goes, I'm sure there are some twists to uncover :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it's caught your interest, and I'll do my best to keep it :)
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