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.”