The Latest Tech

While the tech conference was a who’s who of the most cutting edge companies showcasing the latest devices with flashy branding, the talk soon focused on two booths set up in the middle of the room. There no names or logo on them, and no representative was nearby to explain them. Many people passing by thought they might just be a place to take a break, yet very few were willing to sit in them “just in case” they were for some sort of presentation..

Finally, after several hours, Angela decided to sit down in one of the booths. She had been on her feet since 8AM demonstrating her company’s latest AI to a bunch of guys who had more interest in checking out her body than the software she was displaying. She just needed a break from standing in her heels for a minute, and the booth’s seats were so close.

Meanwhile, Josh had just arrived at the conference after a three hour meeting where he found out he had lost out on a five million dollar deal for the cybersecurity company where he worked in sales. He wasn’t even considering how and why these things were in the middleof the conference floor. He just sat down.

And then strange things happened. The two booths lit up. It was just a glow at first, then it was a flash. The next thing Josh noticed was that he now was wearing a short skirt with bare legs and heels. He was someone else; a woman, in fact! But more importantly, he felt like he escaped from his failure.

At the same time, while Angela certainly wasn’t happy about how she was treated as a woman in tech, but turning into a guy? She was horrified! This had to be a bad dream or some sort of virtual reality, right? It couldn’t actually be real...could it?

Feast

Dr. Samuel Heche knew he turned himself into a woman with his experiements, but he was just starting to realize he had turned himself into a monster as well. His only solace was in the fact that he seemed to be very conscious of it all.

The monsterous feeling inside began the day he showed up as a woman in the lab after a failed experiment. The teasing and the harassment from the male scientists was relentless. The violent thoughts grew in his head throughout the way; he wanted to slaughter them all. And while anger from the comments was a trigger, it was the growing hunger inside him that was most disturbing.

By lunchtime he couldn’t focus, and it was taking all his strength not to slice each of these men with a scalpeland feast on their innards. But he waited. He waited for the day to end; he waited for each and every one of them to leave. Then he could finally feast.

The organs had all been donated to science. They were there for study, but Samuel had a more immediate need for all of them as he began to eat his fill. The brains tasted the best. As he opened another jar, the blood dripped from his mouth. This one, like many others, smelled of formaldehyde, but it didn’t matter in the slightest to Samuel. He realized he was little better than a zombie now with only one crucial difference -- he was smarter! And while these leftovers were such a treat, he knew he needed to be calculated if he wanted to feast on fresh meat tomorrow.

Retro Gamer (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Retro Gamer.

Alan found being within the game much more challenging than simply playing one. His character kept dying when hit by enemies or falling off a cliff -- which proved to be actually physically painful -- and restarting. And each time, he just kept trying again.

But one time, he just stood there as the timer ran out before ultimately dying again. This caused him to realize something important, his actions were not his own. It felt like he was moving, jumping, and stomping on bad guys, but they were all being dictated by a player on the other side of the screen.

He started to use the cut screens to try to express that he was a real person, that the player on the end of the screen shouldn’t give up, and that he needed to get to the end to escape. Of course, he wasn’t sure if this ever came across as a real plea or if people thought it was just part of the game. Heck, he didn’t even know if his words showed up in English on the screen or Japanese.

But he had to keep trying, to keep begging. He needed nothing more than to escape this game!

Halloween Party

Happy Halloween (a little early)!

Accept It

“I’m going to figure out how you did this,” Matthew told Inez, “And then I’m going to get my body back!”

“Do you think so, Matt? Do you REALLY think so?” Inez said confidently, “Because swapping bodies was NOT easy, and you have no idea the lengths I will go to stop you from doing so. I will tell you that it’s a process, and you’d probably barely scratch the surface by the time I call ICE to have you deported. I bet you didn’t know I was here illegally, did you? Well, that’s your problem now. You basically have one choice and one choice only. You keep your head down, keep my exhausting work study job, and maybe one day find some guy to marry you for citizenship. Meanwhile, I’ll be enjoying the freedom of being the son of some rich white people.”

13th Floor

Katherine entered the elevator ay 8:57AM. The trip up to the 30th floor and walk to her desk should take exactly three minutes. She smiled at her promptness. But just as the elevator door began to close, a hand pushed its way in to force it back open. A bearded man wearing sweatpants entered and stood next to her. She did recognize him; Doug was widely regarded as the best coder in the tech department. However, his unprofessional appearance and lack of people skills had long prevented him from any promotion.

This became very apparent as the doors closed. Doug didn’t even say hello; he simply leered at Katherine in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. She just wanted this elevator trip to be as short as possible. Instead, at around the 13th floor, the elevator shook, eventually coming to an abrupt halt.

Katherine was knocked to the floor and bumped her head on the side of the elevator. She began to awaken as the elevator slowly started up again. She felt heavy and sluggish, which she initially attributed to hitting her head. She was jolted to a state of alertness by the sound of a familiar voice...hers.

“We don’t have much time.” The tone of her voice sounded so flat and emotionless, almost to an eerie extent.

“What happened?” She asked, equally weirded out by the gruff sound of the voice coming from her mouth.

“We swapped bodies. Don’t know why. Just tell me what I need to know to get through the day.”

“Well, first of all. I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. I work in marketing. I need to be personal, friendly, and outgoing. You make me sound like a robotic drone. Next,” She sighed as the realization of being stuck in Doug’s body was really hitting her hard, “This body is gross.”

Doug in Katherine’s body grunted but still showed little emotion. “Doesn’t matter. We don’t have a choice. Unless you know some way to fix this.”

Katherine could only shake her head to indicate “no.”

Lightning Crashes (Part 1)

“Where the heck do you think you’re going?” I shouted out to my body that was now just walking off in the distance, “We need to figure out a way to fix this!”

“We were struck by lightning and swapped bodies!” I heard my own voice shout back at me, “The chances of recreating that are almost zilch. You’d be better off spending your time adjusting to my body and accepting the fact that you’re a woman now!”

I suppose she was right, but I still couldn’t understand why she was running off so quickly. After all, she knew nothing more about my life than I knew about hers. It probably made more sense to stick together and learn from each other, but she seemed to have no interest in any of that.

At the same time, if there were going to be stuck like this and be forced to live each other’s lives, he knew exactly where his apartment was, his old job, and everything about his old life. Even if she was trying to run away now, he knew exactly where to find her.

At the Store

I had just popped into the grocery store to buy some beers and frozen dinners to sustain my bachelor lifestyle. I was trying to hold it all with my two hands when a flash of light overcame the entire store. In the next moment I was pushing a cart filled with some vegetables and a bunch of health food. But it wasn’t looking down at the cart that shocked me, it was looking down at my chest. Two large orbs were now down there encased in some sort of spandex workout top. There was matching leggings on my legs and a purse slung around my shoulder.

My mind was racing. I was in someone else’s body! I tried to figure out about myself from my appearance. She was one of those women who worked out at that trendy gym nearby. Was she a mom? She was in pretty good shape, but she could still be a mom. Was I in the body of a mom? It all seemed so hard to wrap my head around. This body was like my exact opposite and now I was the one in the control of it!

Town Meeting

Town meetings were typically boring affairs with low attendance, but after the Great Shift they became places to complain, meet, and vent. Brett had showed up to try to demand a solution or gripe about the fact that he was likely to lose his athletic scholarship now that he was a 40-year-old Asian woman verging on menopause. Of course, seeing the town’s chairman in the body of a 10-year-old made him think twice. People were certainly in much more awkward positions than he was.

But he did still have questions. He nervously raised his hand and the chairman noted, “The board recognizes Mrs. Park...or whoever is now inside Ellen Park’s body.”

“It’s Brett Wilkinson,” He said, “I guess I’m just curious when the stores plan on reopening. I think my mom and sister are getting sick and tired of me borrowing their outfits all the time.”

“We’re working on getting the stores to reopen, Mr. Wilkinson. Getting people back to work is a priority for the town. It can be difficult, particularly when a good number of people may have swapped into bodies that just aren’t able to do their previous jobs. Next question.”

Step by Step

The flash of light hit Will like a truck. He could feel the instant change to his world when he looked down to see a different body than his own -- with an unmistakable feminine shape!

Though he cursed the fact that he was now a woman, he tried not to dwell on it. He quickly decided the best course of action was to head back home. However, as he got on his feet, another aspect of his new body came into play.

It was nearly impossible for him to stand with the high heeled shoes now on his feet. Walking would be even more of a challenge, as he took a single step before he had to grab onto a nearby wall to keep from falling down.

He’d either have to adjust to these shoes quickly or take them off to walk barefoot though the streets of Brooklyn. Neither option seemed all that appealing to him.

The Chambers

Sawyer could only watch as they dragged Emily (in his body) away. He was sure he’d be next, but the strange men never returned. He seemed stuck in this chamber of the body swapping machine until someone unlocked the door to let him out.

It was several hours later when a handsome man arrived. Sawyer hated how the hormones of Emily’s body were clearly reacting to how attractive he was.

“Hang on,” The man said, “I’m going to get you out of there.”

“Wait,” Sawyer replied, “Did you run into anyone else? A guy? About twenty years old? Brown hair? Clean shaven? Maybe just a little taller than you? You should know I’m not who I appear to be. This thing is a --”

The man interrupted, “--a body swapping machine. Yeah, I know. My name is...Tiffany.”

“Wait! That’s not so bad. Maybe you and I could use it. I could go back to being a guy, and you could be a girl!”

“Thanks, but I don’t think so. Brad is literally my best friend. I’m sure he trusts me with his body, and I know everything about him. While it might be nice to be a woman again, I know zilch about whatever body you’re in. Plus, even if we had any idea how to operate this thing, it seems to only work from a control panel on the outside. I think I saw how they opened the door though.”

“Just as long as you don’t swap my brain into the empty chamber.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Luckily, Tiffany was able to open the door to free Sawyer without any additional mishaps, but they were still both in the wrong bodies...for now.

What If It's Forever

“I know they say it’s bad luck for a husband to see a bride before the wedding, but I never expected...this!” Tim said from inside his soon-to-be-wife’s body.

“It’s fine. We’ll be fine,” Liz replied nervously inside Tim’s body, “It’s weird, but we’ll get through it. Maybe we just through this wedding and we’ll swap back...like when we kiss or something. It’ll be some sort of romantic climax.”

“I hope so...but what if we don’t? What if we’re stuck like this...forever?”

“Then we’re stuck with each other forever. It’s just a different kind of romantic, I suppose.”

“I still can’t believe I’m going to be attending this wedding as you, though. That’s going to be weird.”

“You’ll love it. The bride is always the center of attention; I’m jealous.”

“Well, yeah, because it should be you.”

Rear End

In the moment, it seemed like a pretty big deal. The crack on the windshield and the front end of the car was totaled, a drastic rear end accident with the car in front of him. But as Rowan came down from the shock, he began to wonder how he was behind the wheel in the first place; he certainly hadn’t remembered even getting into a car.

As he began assessing the situation, he could hardly fault himself from the accident. This wasn’t his car. Even the body he was now in was now in wasn’t his own; it was a woman’s body! It was like he was magically teleported into it or something. Of course he had no time to react!

And it seemed like he wasn’t the only one! There were tons of people in various states of confusion with different bodies, and many, many accidents as well. Severaal of those accidents were much, much worse too! In fact, he realized he should probably be glad he was still alive along with the people in the car he hit!

The Smart One

Julian had spent the last few hours trying to figure out this device. Lana had threatened to kill him if he didn’t figure it out. After all, the weird thing did swap their bodies, and it didn’t work when they tried to use it a second time.

He realized it was an idle threat; she certainly wouldn’t kill him as long as he was in her body. Plus, it’s not like any of this was his fault. The device was just sort of there; he wasn’t the one who touched it; he really couldn’t be held even the slightesy bit responsible. But he was the smart one. If anyone could figure it out, it would be him. And hence all the work and calculations, but none of was getting him any closer to actually making this thing work. It shouldn’t have been remotely possible for this thing to swap two people’s bodies, and yet here he was inside of Lana’s.

Catching a Break

Roger was finally catching a break. Sharon and Ron had finally left the house allowing him to sneak inside. Now he needed to find Sharon’s necklace that had caused him to be stuck in Minh’s body in the first place. Once he had that, he was sure he could talk her into swapping back with him.

Though he still had all sorts of questions, like why his friend Molly had wanted him and Minh to swap bodies in the first place, or why she left him stuck like this by giving the necklace back to Sharon. He certainly hoped Minh wasn’t involved; if she was, talking her into swapping back might be a lot more complicated.

It was a lot for him to even wrap his head around, but he knew this was the first step. But where the heck could he look to even find the thing?

Escape

“Hey, Amy, wake up. Wake up!” Kyle said while pushing on his body, “I’m here to free you, but I have some bad news.”

“I know,” Amy sighed, “They used that machine to swap our bodies. I’ve woken up a few times, but I think your body has a concussion.”

“That’s not the bad news. It’s the fact that the machine has been destroyed.”

“So we’re stuck like this?”

“It’s worse. No one is coming to save us. If we want to get out of this place, we’re on our own. I don’t know how we’ll adapt to being each other once all of this is over, but I’m guessing we’ll have to find a way.”

“We could tell the media -- tell the world about what they do here!”

“Tell them that they switched our bodies in a secret facility? They’ll call us crazy; they’ll lock US up! We’d need some sort of evidence.”

“Our swapped bodies aren’t evidence?”

“Except thre’s nothing to prove we actually swapped...”

Miss Worldwide

Jason had found himself on the other side of the world after the Great Shift happened. His first thought was to try to tell people he knew that he was alive and well, despite now being in the body of an Asian woman. But phones and email seemed to be struggling, likely due to everyone needed for basic maintenance of these systems were also swapped. He was sure they’d be back up soon, and in the meantime he spent his days studying his new face in the mirror.

She was certainly an attractive woman with plenty of makeup and lots of fancy clothes, though Jason was opting for things like comfortable pants and sweatshirts that seemed to be stuffed in the back of the closet.

After some time, he decided to go around the neighborhood; he’d eventually run out of food in her apartment. People in this woman’s building didn’t seem to speak any English, and the signs on the streets weren’t much help either; but he did manage to find a mall. And inside he saw something that truly shocked him.

It looked like an ad for perfume, but the woman in the ad -- was him (or, more precisely, the woman’s body he currently had). He was in the body of a model! Or an actress! Or something like that! And, sure enough, as he stood next to the ad, other people began to notice it as well. It wasn’t long before a small crowd gathered round to try to talk to Jason in a language he didn’t understand or ask for an autograph or take a selfie together. He had thought being swapped into a body that was a different gender on the other side of the world was wild, but the fact that he was a celebrity took it to a whole new level!

Into the Game

Being sucked inside a video game was pretty cool, though ending up as the game’s sole female character was a little awkward for Jake. He was sure he didn’t select her; he never played as her. She was so obviously the weakest character. And yet..

She may have been the game’s weakest character, but this body was certainly significantly stronger than his original body. When he kicked the wall, it caused the concrete to crumble. He began to think this might not be so bad. Plus, as he looked down, it might be fun to have a woman’s body for a while.

Of course, he didn’t have too much time to enjoy it. Another fighter soon appeared, ready to challenge him. He didn’t really want to fight, but it also seemed he didn’t have a choice. And while the fight wasn’t that bad, he imagined it was only going to get a lot more difficult from here.

Partners

“That’s quite the wild story, young lady,” Officer Mike Jabowski lamented.

Gus took a deep breath. He was worried he wasn’t getting through to his partner. Trying to explain who he really was despite the body he now had; attempting to tell him it had something to do with some low-level criminal they apprehended the other day; he could tell Mike was dismissing all of it in his head. Gus made one last go at it, “I don’t expect you to believe me. Hell, if our situations were reversed, I wouldn’t believe it either. But I’m not even asking you to believe a crazy body swapping story; I’m just telling you to watch your back from now on. Whoever is actually in my body can’t be trusted. I don’t want to see you get hurt, okay? I took a lot of risk tailing you both just so I could wait for him to go to the bathroom to tell you this as soon as I could. If I’m still here when he gets out, I don’t want to know what he’ll do. So I’m going to bounce, okay? Just promise me you’ll watch yourself, okay?”

Mike still didn’t want to believe this woman. She was crazy, right? And yet there was just something very familiar. Maybe his partner had been acting off this shift? He looked at her square in the eyes, “I’ll watch myself. Now you get out of here, okay?”

Rerun (Part 1)

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

“How can you be so calm about this, Jenn?” Nick asked, “We’ve literally been sucked into a rerun on the television.”

“You’re just mad because I’m in the body of the main character, a preppy popular boy! And you’re stuck in a supporting role as one of the teachers, a loser woman who settled for that job!” She retorted.

“No, I’m worried because this is really weird! Are we just running through the series? What happens if we break from the script? And most of the teachers were written out after the first season to focus on the kids. So am I concerned about being a supporting character? Sure, but that’s because I have no idea what happens to me if we don’t find a way out of this before that point!”

“Why can’t you just let me enjoy myself for a little while? I loved this show growing up!”

Nick sighed, “Okay, fine. Whatever episode we’re stuck in, we finish it -- do whatever we need to do based on what we remember about the plot -- but then we try to find a way out of this, okay?”

Amongst It All

At least amongst all the chaos of all this body swapping, Evan figured he could at least figure out whose body he was now in. He opened up the purse he was now holding and began poking around inside, eventually finding an ID.

And there was a name and an address, but he still craved to know more. Sure, he was a woman now, but what was her story? What sort of life did he inherit thanks to this “Great Shift?” And who knows what sorts of biological things he has to deal with now. Period, yes, but does she have any genetic disorders he should know about? Family history? These felt like things he should probably know.

Flicking the Switch (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Flicking the Switch.

Annabelle pounded on the door with no answer.

“Maybe they aren’t home,” Caleb suggested.

“They have to be home,” Annabelle firmly stated, “We literally just walked by and some sort of energy came out and swapped our bodies. I’m not exactly planning on running around with this itchy hair on my face; I won’t even explictly mention the other explicit thing.”

“But no one is answering...”

“Then I’ll pound until your knuckles are bloody.”

“Please don’t...”

Jonathan and Minh simply couldn’t hear the doorbell or the pounding on the front door from inside the garage. And while Caleb and Annabelle were the first ones to arrive with their bodies swapped by Jonathan’s careless switch flicking, they were certainly not the last as a small crowd was soon gathering...

Haircut

“Are you sure that’s what you wanted?” The barber asked the young woman sitting in his chair, “Most women would be freaking out getting their long hair cut off...not that we actually get all too many women in here.”

“No, it’s perfect,” Adam replied as he admired his new look using his phone. He may have swapped bodies with Rebecca, but he decided that was no reason he had to act all girlie. In fact, getting that long hair off his head felt so good. Next, he was going to wash this makeup off his face and change into some comfortable clothes. He’d cut these long pink nails too. Sure, there was some aspects of her body that he couldn’t do much about -- at least not in any sort of short term sense. He was going to have the body of a woman, but he sure as hell didn’t have to look or act like one.

Rebecca would be less pleased when she saw him.

PooPoo (Part 2)

View Part 1 of PooPoo.

When I confronted Putri about stealing my body, she pretending like she was me and that I was just “crazy little PooPoo.” When I tried to explain the body swapping to my now wife, she dismissed me just as quickly. I had to get used to the fact that I was now in the body of her little sister, a 19-year-old woman taking classes at the local college.

As I spent more time in Putri’s body, I came to learn why she hated it. She was constantly compared to her sister by her parents. They’d ask things like “Who can’t you be as smart Melati?” “Why can’t you dress pretty like Melati?” “Why can’t you find a husband like Melati?” Also, being called PooPoo all the time wasn’t exactly great for my self-esteem.

Despite the miserable time at home, I actually started to really enjoy my time on campus in Putri’s body. When not dealing with demotivating parents, Putri was a fun and quirky girl. I was a fun and quirky girl! I found every excuse to stay overnight in a friend’s dorm room, hit up extra hours at the library, and just avoid Putri’s home life in general. As the months went on, I actually found I enjoyed living her life.

One night, I snuck into a bar with a few friends (and a few fake IDs), and I couldn’t believe a guy actually bought me a beer! I gave him an awkward smile and blushed. I could tell Putri’s feminine hormones were reacting; the guy was hot, and I knew it. I was even more shocked when he came up to speak with me.

“I’m Brian,” He said seductively, “What’s your name?”

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Derek and Julia had moved into their new neighborhood about six months ago and had heard about the parties the local couples held, but this was first time attending. As they greeted the hosts, Phil and Melinda Quinn, Derek started to get a little suspicious after striking up a conversation.

“I hear these parties are pretty popular,” Derek said to Phil.

“Oh, you’ll find out why,” Phil smirked.

“Maybe we should show them early,” Melinda suggested.

“Just the four of us? Come on, that’ll spoil some of the surprise.” Phil lamented.

“We should easy of them; it’s their first time,” Melinda reminded him.

“Oh, God, I think this is a swinger’s party,” Derek whispered to his wife, “Let’s get out of here.”

“Let’s just play it cool. If it gets too weird, we’ll leave,” Julia whispered back to him.

The Quinns lead Derek and Julia down to their basement where an orb sat on display. Instead of any sort of sexual advance, The Quinns just suggested they all touch the orb. Derek and Julia shrugged; they couldn’t see what harm it could do. But as they touched it, the orb glowed and everyone was awash ina bright light.

Derek blinked until he could see again. He could tell things had dramatically changed. He saw Julia, Phil, and...his own body? In an instant, he knew that the orb had swapped him into Melinda’s body.

“Isn’t it great?” Phil said speaking from Julia’s body, “It’s like you get to cheat without actually cheating.”

“No! No, it’s not!” Derek exclaimed, “I want my body back.”

“You’ll have to wait a while,” Melinda said from Derek’s body, “I have no interest in having that body back again for a while. She was a little frigid in bed. You could get lucky though, I do plan the join the general random pool next time. Now you see why people coming back to the party, right?”

Brie

“Brie! Brie! Are you alright!?” I could hear a man’s voice shout, and it seemed to be getting closer.

I had no idea what happened. It was like I had just been hit by a car. Except I had been at home, and there was a flash of light. However, I was now most certainly on a street, and there was a car not far away. And the other thing that became clear was this shouting man was most certainly talking to me.

“I’m fine, but why are you calling me Brie?” I asked.

He helped me to my feet, and he seemed genuinely concerned about me. I noted that he seemed very tall as he continued to speak. “Did you hit your head when you fell, Brie? Do you need to go to the hospital? You’re name is Brie McCellan, my girlfriend. Remember?”

“Girlfriend? I’m not even a girl...” As soon as I said it I realized just how wrong I was. A quick inspection of my revealed I was, in fact, a woman! I could only assume I swapped bodies with this Brie person somehow. It didn’t take too much longer to learn I wasn’t the only one...

The Fog (Part 1)

Please note:
Subscribers to my DeviantArt page at the "A Little Shift" level can get early access to Part 2 and Part 3.

Getting a car during my senior year of college was pretty exciting. Granted, the thing was used and prone to breaking down, but the fact that I even had a set of wheels probably put me a few notches above the other guys on the coolness scale -- or at least that’s what I told myself. Trying to convince my other friends to go on a road trip with me one weekend told me otherwise.

Only Mack agreed to go with me. He had been my best friend since freshman year, so I don’t know if he felt obligated or if he was just bored. We had gone pretty far from campus when my car ultimately gave out. Our cell phones had no signal and the nearest town was miles away. We started walking.

About a half hour down the road, we encountered a strange pink fog. It tasted like perfume, and it was slowly changing us -- though neither of us noticed it at the time -- it was turning us into women. When we finally arrived at a town, it was night. We decided to get a room and find a mechanic in the morning. It was when the clerk called us “young women” that we both finally realized. Mack and I avoided freaking out at that exact moment, but once we got into our room, we screamed our heads off. The fact that we were now doing this with girly voices only added to our panic.

Sir, Yes, Sir!

I think we were all confused after the Great Shift. All of my fellow enlistees and I found ourselves in each other’s bodies, and we wondered if it was some sort of psy-ops training at first. We looked to our drill sergeant for some sort of direction, but he seemed more scared and confused than any of us. It was a nice reprive, but it didn’t last long. A woman soon emerged from a building not far away; a few of us recognized her as the sergeant’s wife.

“I don’t think I told you maggots you could take a break!” She shouted at us.

Most of us just looked at each other in confusion as she spoke.

“Did I stutter?” She added, more forceful than before, “When your superior officer gives you an order, you follow that damned order. Do you think I care that you’re probably all in the wrong bodies? Do you think the enemy would care? Does it matter that I’m in the wrong body? No, now start running the damned course.”

We all responded the only way we could think of now that we realized our sergeant was the one in his wife’s body. “Sir, yes, Sir!” We all said in unison.

Searching

Shirley had told Rodney that she threw the medallion away after stealing his body. But honestly, that didn’t seem in character for her. He knew she craved power. Heck, he was pretty sure that’s why she stole his body in the first place. He had a high position in the company where they both worked. But she could use the medallion again to steal the body of a powerful politician or a billionaire, and he knew she probably would. It just didn’t make sense for her to throw it away and give that up.

Luckily, Rodney knew exactly where he kept his own spare key and found himself sneaking into his own house any time Shirley was away. Then he’d search every place he could think of. He was sure she had to have stashed it away somewhere, and he was also sure it would be only a matter of time before he found it. Then he could use it to finally get his body back from her!

Finally?

“Oh my God! They’re here! This is perfect!” Leila exclaimed with excitement, “Finally this nightmare is over, and I can switch us back!”

Ryan was skeptical. It had been a few days since his sister had made him try the magical potion that she had made that caused them to swap bodies. And they had been on the hunt for the ingredients so she could made a second batch to switch them back ever since. This wasn’t even the first time she had gotten excited about finding the supposed “right” ingredients. He had downed at least a half dozen different drinks that should have worked. And in the meantime, he had been forced to work her job as a masseuse while she got to go to his corporate job, which he only assumed she was absolutely failing at. He knew they needed to swap back as soon as they could, but he still doubted whatever she bought this time would work. Nothing had so far.

Employed

It was Scott’s first day at his first job since graduating college. He considered himself lucky, as many of his recently graduated friends were having much more trouble finding employment. He arrived to work early, and sat down and waited to meet with HR.

The woman arrived at 9:15. Her name was Linda, and Scott had met her during the interview process. He estimated she was around his mom’s age, but he knew it was rude to ask. She was talking him through various policies and procedures when a bright light shone through the windows of the office.

The next thing he knew, he was looking at his own face, which appeared frightened. He opened his mouth to speak and recognized Linda’s voice. As improbable as it was, the two had swapped bodies. And it seemed they weren’t the only ones. Walking around the office, they found it was true throughout the company. And as the news reports flooded in, people discovered the body swapping incident was true worldwide.

Scott was pretty devistated about being several decades older. He felt even worse about it when he hung out with his old friends. Because they had all been unemployed at the time, they had mostly been hanging out around each other, which also meant they swapped amongst themselves. He was the only one who swapped with someone significantly older; only because he was the only one lucky enough to have a job. But he didn’t feel so lucky now.