Struck (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Struck.

Paul brought George (who he thought was Jenny) back to his place, and it wasn’t long before Paul noticed some strange behavior. George was being rather sexually aggressive. At first, Paul thought it was just Jenny adjusting to having male hormones. He deflected plenty of advances, but George really wasn’t stopping. And in a moment, it all just sort of clicked for Paul. Whoever was in his body now, it wasn’t Jenny.

With terrified tears now streaming down his face, Paul grabbed his bag and returned outside to the pouring rain. And he knew he was going straight to Jenny’s apartment. It was a thirty minute walk, but it was better than being stuck with whoever the monster was now inside his body.

And maybe Jenny would think to go there, too! Maybe it could all still work out!

The Potion in the Attic (Part 3)

View Part 1 of The Potion in the Attic.
View Part 2 of The Potion in the Attic.

Tony dropped the bottles off at the frat party the next morning. He had a whole excuse planned about how he was his own sister, but no one even seemed to ask or care about where the original Tony was, nor even asked his name. A few of his frat brother did take a moment to hit on him. Tony shrugged it off with his attention focused on tonight.

Time passed slowly that day as he waited for the party. And despite the anticipation, he still ended up arriving about an hour after the start time. It was pretty obvious that they had already started using the bottles he had brought. He approached a group of three women, which he recognized as now opposite gender versions of three of his frat brothers.

“Hey!” One named Rhys slurred, “It’s Tony’s sister! What’s yer name?”

“Tonya,” Tony said, proudly able to use the name he had come up with earlier.

“Well, when you see your brother, you need to thank him! We mixed a few of those liquors he had you bring...they are amazing! They’re so smooth going down, and yet I feel, like, really good in a way I can’t place. And the babes aren’t put off by me when I talk to them! These drinks are like magic, man!”

Tonya smiled. Did Rhys even realize he now had a woman’s body? Did he know the two women he was speaking with were actually James and Byron? How much more would they drink? How much more would they change? And what about the rest of the party? The night was young and so was the chaos!

429-B

Today we are reviewing footage from Test Subject 429-B. Given the results of earlier test 414-A, this time we ensured all sharp objects in the room have been removed. As you can observe, the initial reactions of the test subject upon waking up the chair in a body different from their own is a state of panic. This has been nearly universal in all of our cross-gender body swap experiments with only about 2% not displaying such a reaction. The remaining 2% display an instant outward sense of curiosity.

Now, the reason we are observing this subject today is the period after the panic. Once he realizes he is a woman, he proceeds to get quite angry. When he discovers his new body is not as strong as his previous one, this only makes him angrier.

...And yet, it doesn’t last. Despite the period of anger, he too eventually falls into a previous of curiosity where the new body is sufficiently explored and ultimately enjoyed.

Everyone

“Hello!?” Max shouted into the security camera at the discount store, “Does anyone actually work here? Can anyone explain what’s going on? I just walked in here, and I swapped bodies with this woman! I tried to ask the people working on the floor or at the registers, but they said they weren’t swapped too and weren’t actually workers. Does anyone know what’s going on? Unless...there’s no one there, is there? You’ve all been swapped too, and no one cares? Right? Has everyone in the entire world swapped bodies? What the hell is going on here?”

Siblings

When their father passed, the funeral was the first time Jeff and Angie had seen each other in years. The siblings had grown distant and didn’t have much to talk about anymore. They did both agree to help their mom throw out some of their father’s junk a few days later.

When Angie arrived, Jeff was already tossing stuff from the basement. It was where their father made all sorts of strange inventions -- most of which never worked. Despite a quick hello, Angie decided to work on the other side of the basement away from Jeff. The first thing she tried to lift was simply too heavy.

“Could you help me with this?” She asked.

Jeff shrugged and came over to help her. But the moment they both touched the device, it began to turn on. The device shot electrical bolts that hit both of them, knocking them to the ground.

Jeff awoke first and realized something was wrong. He and Angie had swapped bodies! He woke her up, explained what had happened, and told her they needed to try using the device again. He held onto the side Angie had tried to lift while she gripped the other side. It began to turn on again and even shoot some bolts out, but they remained in each other’s bodies.

“We need to figure this out!” Angie exclaimed with a look of pure fear, “I do NOT want to be stuck in your body!”

“Same!” Jeff echoed.

Uglies

Theresa had to admit that she had never seem too many unattractive people on Exchane Island. It didn’t make much sense. Surely, that potential to be good-looking for a few weeks would draw a good number of ugly people, which would increase the chances of actually seeing someone unattractive.

About midway through the week, she did spy a gangly woman with thick bushy eyebrows and an overbite. Surely, this woman had answers. She first asked about who she really was.

“My name is Enrique, and I’m actually a professional body builder,” The gangly woman answered, “I usually spend my time on the other side of the island, but it’s probably good is Carol sees her body at least once on her trip. People sometimes freak out if they don’t.”

“Other side of the island?” Theresa asked.

Enrique sighed, realizing he probably already said too much, “Look, we’re not supposed to talk about it, but there’s no rule against telling you. The resort hires a bunch of attractive people to swap with the uglies on this side. We get pretty paid well too!”

“My original body is not ugly!” Theresa objected.

“Have you seen it more than on on this trip? No, right? Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but, yes, your original body must be totally ugly. That’s just the way it works...”

Flicking the Switch

“Can you fix it?” Minh asked nervously as she clutched her hands together.

“I think so,” Jonathan explained as he replaced one of the vacuum tubes, “But I never expected this thing to be able to swap people’s bodies! And it was surely an accident that you were involved in this at all! You were jogging by outside at what I guess was simply the wrong time. We’re both just lucky I had spare parts.”

However, when Jonathan flicked the switch to turn his machine on and off -- nothing happened, or so he thought. He flicked it on and off several times, wondering why it didn’t swap him and Minh back to their own bodies. Of course, the various neighbors he was swapping with each flick of the switch were far less pleased with his careless attempts to get back.

Pointing Out the Paradox

The woman appeared in a flash of light in Jin’s garage. She appeared to have a human face with many robots parts. Was she an android? A cyborg?

“Your invention. Have you turned it on yet?” She asked.

“I mean, yeah. But it’s still warming up,” Jin replied.

“We need to destroy it.”

“Wait, how do you even know about my invention? I haven’t told anyone.”

“I’m from the future. And if we don’t destroy it now, it will bring all sorts of pain to humanity.”

“Oh, come on! This’ll do good in the world.”

“It does, until powerful people corrupt it. We need to destroy it now.”

“And why should I believe you?”

“Because I AM you.”

“Oh, come on, you’re a chick!”

“Biological and technological replacement parts are quite limited in the future. I took what I could get to survive for the past 500 years! But your wasting time; we need to destroy your machine now, and then hopefully I will just blink out of existence.”

“If we succeeded in doing that, wouldn’t that have prevented you from showing up in the first place?”

Back in Time for Breakfast

In the days after the Great Shift, Ava had been worried about her brother Mattias. He was the only one she cared about that she hadn’t heard from. For weeks, she feared the worst. Ultimately, she was surpried to hear from him via email. It turned out he had swapped into a woman’s body halfway across the world in the Middle East. Trying to explain who he really was turned out to be a chore due to language differences and a good number of woman trying to use the Shift as a reason to leave their husbands.

Getting back to the states took several more weeks, but Ava was there to pick him up at the airport first thing in the morning. When Matias mentioned he was hungry, she brought him to a diner. He proceded to order a beer and an excessive amount of bacon.

After chomping on a piece of bacon and taking a swig of beer, he looked over to his sister. “Thank you,” He said, “I know it’s a little early for booze, but they just don’t have this over there! And I can’t wait to go shopping for some clothes and ditch these outfits. Maybe we can go together? Bring mom and dad? It’s going to be so weird seeing them in new bodies, especially since they are no older than us now, right?”

Instead

Todd didn’t know how the app got installed on his phone, but the fact that it could swap body parts, personality traits, or just about anything else was far too entertaining. It would probably cause chaos if anyone else noticed, but it seemed that Todd was the only one who noticed the changes. Eventually, he decided to try to bring his friend Brian along for the fun.

It seemed that as long as both he and Brian touched the phone at the same time, they could both notice the changes. And together, they caused all sorts of swaps in the mall for hours.

But then Todd had an evil idea. He aimed the phone at a couple kissing on a bench, intending to swap their bodies. But while he kept the woman as a target, he secretly switched the other person from her boyfriend to Brian. When Brian touched the phone so he could be aware of the swap, he suddenly found himself in the woman’s body while his own body was now sitting on the bench making out with the woman’s boyfriend.

“What the hell, man!?” Brian shouting as Todd broke out laughing. Brian grabbed for the phone, but Todd wouldn’t let go.

The struggle began to cause all sorts of other swaps. One of the swaps caused Brian to switch races with an Asian man, and another resulted in both Todd and Brian to swap clothes with manequins from a couture dress store. This was when Todd realized how dangerous this app could be. If they could swap clothes with mannnequins, what if they had swapped something more consequential? In his moment of concern, Brian had managed to wrestle the phone out of Todd’s hands. However, Brian noticed his body had long gone. So with the possibility of getting back to normal out of the question, he looked toward Todd with the idea of getting revenge instead.

Escaping the Experiment

Joe’s heels clicked on the linoleum. He was sure his original body had to be stored in one of these chambers. He just had to find it, bring it up to the body switching machine to swap back, and then get the hell out of this place. It took him several hours to check each one until he finally found it. He considered himself lucky not to run into any security, but once he opened the chamber, he realized why they may not even be necessary. Joe’s new smaller female body seemed barely able to move the weight of his former male body. There was no way he’d be able to drag it all the way to the machine. Which meant he had two choices. He could wait around here and see what sort of other experiments were done on him, or he could escape and live the life of a woman forever.

Some Advice

“Are you...are you hitting on me?” Brianna was struggling to not laugh in response, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s sort of cute, I guess, but did you think you had any sort of chance? I mean, I get that before the Shift, you were probably a guy right?”

“Yeah,” Brett mumbled as he nodded.

“It shows in your frumpy wardrobe choices. And, so, let me give you some advice. I’m a woman, and I’ve always been a woman. I’m not a lesbian either. But I’ve hit by plenty of guys like you since the Great Shift happened. They all still want to hit on women, but only, like, girlie women, you know? And yet they’re all frumpy like you. So here’s my advice: Put on a dress, get dolled up in makeup, throw on some high heels. You’ll find plenty of guys stuck in women’s bodies ready to throw themselves at you. You’ll get your lesbian relationship, and you’ll probably have your pick of them. But keep going after women like me? Eh, I just doubt you’ll have much luck.”

Single Dad

Grant had been having a hard time since his wife died. Not only was he dealing with the loss, but he also had to be a single parent for his young daughter as well -- she was barely old enough to understand what had happened. He often wished there could be a female role model in his daughter’s life, and that he could connect with her better.

One morning he got his wish in a way he never would have imagined. Waking up as a woman was a shock, but Grant told himself he could deal with it -- and, in fact, he nearly burst into tears when his daughter called him “Mommy.” Hearing that gave him the confidence that he could deal with being a different gender.

But that wasn’t the full extent of the wish’s consequences. Grant soon found himself unable to resist any request from his daughter. Candy for breakfast? Of course! Time to go to work? Grant had to put on the “princess clothes” his daughter wanted him to wear. At least he was able to drop he off at daycare without her objecting!

Still, as he walked down the street to his job, he felt absolutely silly in this outfit. Surely, no one would take him seriously at the sparkle division of the unicorn investment firm where he worked looking like this!

Nurse!

“Nurse Yumi!” The doctor shouted, “Please pull yourself together! We need your help or we’ll lose the patient!”

“He’s already gone,” She replied flatly.

“I’m telling you we can still save him. Are you questioning my medical expertise?”

“No, I’m saying...I AM him. His spirit is gone. If left his body, and its in...here.” She said as she gestured to her heart.

“Quit with the gibberish and get over here.”

And so she walked over and listened to what the doctor told her, but she knew it was hopeless. She knew she was even qualified to be a nurse; that she was actually just the old man dying in front of her but now in the body of this nurse instead. It would be easier for everyone if they simply let her former body pass on.

IF

Chris felt pretty awkward after the Great Shift. He found himself at the mall and inside the body of a young woman. According to her out of state ID, she was nineteen, so he guessed she went to the local college. People were pairing off with the person they swapped with, so he figured he should try to get home to find speak with the person inside his body.

He was quite taken aback when an older woman approached him with a simple introduction, “So, like, that’s my body.”

“What?” Chris asked.

“So, you’re me, and I’m you. We are stuck in each other’s bodies, blah, blah, blah...I want my body back.”

“I don’t think there’s a way to swap back. I don’t know how we swapped in the first place,” He said as a part of him wondered if this woman was just trying to lay claim to a younger body.

“No, there’s like totally a machine at the university that can do it! I’m sure a lot of people will be rushing there once they know about it; we can beat the rush.”

“Well, hold on. Even IF this is your body...you are most certainly NOT in my body. While I didn’t want to be stuck in this body...I really don’t want to be stuck in THAT body.”

The woman seemed annoyed before admitting, “Fair.” And then she added, “So let’s get your body THEN will go to the university to swap back. I just hope we’re not too late...”

I Dunno.

Bob had thought he was going crazy. It started with little things seemingly being in the wrong place, going from one location to another like magic. Then the changes got bigger. His office seemed to have a new layout; there were people at work he didn’t recognize. He ultimately decided to leave early and pick up some medicine from the drug store, so he could go home and get some rest. That’s when things got really weird.

Signs in a foreign language popped up in the store. His body shrank in his suit as he changed races and genders. As he pulled out his wallet, he pulled out his card. “Mihn Vu? Who the hell is that?” He asked.

“Happening to you, too, eh?” The cashier asked.

“Wait...you can tell something is wrong also!? What the hell is happening? Is all of humanity transforming into women? What’s going on?”

“I dunno. But it seems to be random. Guys like us turning into women, sure! But I’ve definitely seen the other way around a few times today as well. Sometimes people know it’s happening to them; other times they’re oblivious.”

“Oblivious? But how is it possible to just forget who you are! I mean, I know I used to be...um...used to be...” It was on the tip of his tongue, but the only name Bob could come up with was ‘Mihn,’ which he was sure was wrong. Wasn’t it?

The Party After (Part 2)

View Part 1 of The Party After.

Earlier in the week,Garrett had been seven feet tall and a rising star on the college’s mens basketball team. Of course, that was before the body swapping incident. Now he stood in the body of a blonde woman at a mere 5’2”. He had been nervous about what would happen to his athletic scholarship since the incident, especially after a particularly embarrassing practice at the gym.

But something was hitting differently at this party. The nervousness he was feeling just seemed more intense. He was clutching the beer in his red Solo cup tighter. He found himself looking up at so many people, but it wasn’’t his short height that was making him feel vulnerable...it was his new gender.

As a tall guy, he could seem pretty intimidating. But as a short woman, he was now the one being intimidated. There were guys leering at him, a few inappropriate gestures, and a lewd comment of two. And what if one of them actually tried something? He couldn’t exactly fight anyone off in this body. Heck, he could barely get a ball into a hoop anymore -- and that was something he used to be good at! He told himself he was going to leave early and find a friend who would safely escort him back to his dorm room for extra protection.

Quarantine

Bill had lost track of the days since he was put into isolation. Every day a scientist would enter and he would ask from his bubble, “How long have I been in here.”

Today the scientist replied, “Three months.”

And Bill would follow up with the same question, “Can you let me out yet?”

And once again, the scientist shook his head with a “No.” They were doing all they could to make sure Bill wasn’t contageous, but they still didn’t know. The Transformation Virus had been devistating a few months ago -- people’s body would undergo dramatic physical changes with few other symptoms, and then spend about a month as a completely different person before finally dieing.

Bill, of course, had survived his transformation -- the only patient who contracted to virus to have done so. He had transformed into a young woman who seemed to be 20 years younger than his own actual age. Immediate quarantine was the only solution to stop the spread. Despite their small size, the bubbles could keep people fed, exercised, and entertained. However, no one envisioned them to be used as long as Bill had. He was a medical mystery that they just couldn’t risk releasing.

The Farmhouse (Part 7)

View Part 1 of The Farmhouse.
View Part 2 of The Farmhouse.
View Part 3 of The Farmhouse.
View Part 4 of The Farmhouse.
View Part 5 of The Farmhouse.
View Part 6 of The Farmhouse.

My sister soon activated the chamber and I once again found myself in a new body. This new form felt even better, and I knew I had to thank her. My sister dismissed my gratitude and just wanted to be back in her own body.

The woman currently inside my sister’s body was swearing loudly right about now. I could only imagine how mad she was going to get in a minute when she ends up in my body.

And, sure enough, once I activated the machine to restore my sister to her original body, leaving the woman she had brought now trapped in my body, there was more yelling and banging. But then there was silence.

I consulted with my sister, and we decided we’d have to risk opening up the chamber to let her out. As we opened the door, my body tumbled out with a huge bloody gash on the head. We didn’t know if the woman had done it by accident or if she had simply been so distraught when she found herself in my body that she had intentionally inflicted the injury upon herself. Either way, we were quickly rushing to the hospital.

Radioactive

After accidental exposure to nuclear materials, Wesley’s body began changing. It started with rapid weight loss and losing a significant amount of body hair. As doctors and scientists examined him and treated him for any radiation exposure, they noticed his body continuing to change. There was a strange swelling of his chest and his genitals were clearly shrinking. Within a few hours, they realized Wesley had become a woman by all observable metrics.It was like nothing they had ever seen before, and the condition was made even stranger by the fact that there seemed to be nothing else wrong. It was as if Wesley hadn’t been exposed to radioactive materials at all.

Within a few hours, Wesley was back up on his feet and walking around as if nothing was wrong -- nothing except his new gender, that is. The doctors wanted to examine him further, but he asked for a few minutes of fresh air first. Stepping outside, he felt a rush of something he had never felt before. It wasn’t just an adjustment due to his new gender, however. It was more than that -- it was like a power inside that he could feel manifesting. He focused it on his hand, and it began to glow. It felt like he could shoot fire from his fingertips. But instead of testing that theory, he calmed himself, knowing the scientists inside were already prodding him based on what they could see. If he manifested superpowers, they’d never let him leave! So he calmed the power, his hand stopped glowing, and he returned inside.

Are You Alright?

After the flash of light, the first thing I remembered was hearing my wife screaming. “Gerald! Gerald! Are you alright?” She asked.

Her voice sounded distant and it didn’t seem to be getting any closer, so I shouted back, “I’m over here.”

I could tell my voice seemed strange and my head was throbbing. I tried rubbing my scalp to help deal with the pain. I could feel a strange fluffiness that I didn’t realize at the time was additional hair.

It took a while for my other senses to come back to me. I’d turn around to see my wife helping another man to his feet -- a man seemed to look like me. I’d learn that other man was actually my body; I had swapped into a woman’s body a few feet away. Most people in the world swapped bodies with someone else in that moment, leaving a few people unaffected -- like my very confused wife.

I was probably a little more fortunate than most that day. Though it still took a while for me to adapt to becoming a woman, I eventually adjusted. I think my wife took it harder than I did, but she got used to it as well...

Hacked

Trevor’s computer pinged. The virus he programmed got a new hit, and the IP was in the perfect type of wealthy neighborhood that he often targeted. So he put on his modified VR headset and went to work, uploading himself onto the web to be downloaded into the brain of the user on the other end.

It was fortunate that so many people had microchip implants these days. Trevor could download himself into just about anyone with full access to their memories and everything else. He’d spent a few hours transferring money to crypto and then send that crypto to his own wallet.

And sure, he’d often end up in a woman’s body who was also a little older -- like the one he was in today. He always hated the feeling of both, so he’d just try to focus on the task at hand. But it was all still a distraction, especially as he’d wait for the transaction confirmation. And yet, he’d find himself looking down, wondering what it might be like to cop a feel. Maybe he shouldn’t, but maybe he could...

Fire Escape

“Crap!” Wilson exclaimed, “Our research! The machine! We need to save it!”

“Don’t forget that Crystal’s brain and my body are in that blaze, too!” Roger added, “But there’s no way we can put that out! We need to get out of here!”

“But then you’ll be stuck in her body forever!”

“There is no way she is alive in there. I’d rather be stuck in her body than dead! And if we hope to ever recreate that body swapping machine, I need you to not get roasted by that fire either, so come on!”

“Fine!” Wilson finally relented as he turned away from the flames. He didn’t understand it. The lab had fire suppression systems. There was no reason for this to happen. It made no sense...unless....No. It seemed impossible. Could Roger have sabotaged it on purpose to keep Crystal’s body?

Interference

“I need you to focus,” Jack explained to his friend, Rob.

“Focus on what?” Rob asked while being completely distracted by the feeling of his new body, “It’s pretty hard to think of anything other than the fact that I’m in Reina’s body right now.”

“Focus on literally anything other than that. Think about who you are. The things you like; what makes you Rob. I need to be able to isolate your thoughts from any interference from Reina’s biology. If I don’t, you’ll become her clone both physically AND mentally.”

“Okay, focus on me. I like baseball, and video games, and, uh...” Rob was having trouble thinking of more things all of a sudden, “And...uh, I like painting my nails, and shopping.”

“Dude, no! Stop! You’re gonna screw it up!”

“Screw what up? Why am I down here? What are you doing?”

What a Ride!

The Switcher was a new addition to the amusement park that arrived just in time for the start of the season. It was advertised to offer riders an intense experience that promised them that they’d never see rides from a completely different perspective. The advertisements weren’t wrong.

As an avid fan of thrill rides, Sawyer knew he had to check it out. Even as he tried to get there as early as possible on the first day it opened, the line still managed to be long. But he told himself the wait was worth it as he sat down in one of the ride’s pods. It started slowly, seemingly following a set circular path, but then it did a quick whip at a high speed. It was so fast and unexpected that it felt like his soul was ripped from his body. As the ride slowed down after the curve, he swore he saw himself sitting in a different pod across from him. But then it whipped again, but this time he realized the sense of his soul being ripped out wasn’t just a feeling -- as he could very clearly sense the fact that he was in the body of a buxom blonde woman. The ride kept whipping, and he kept swapping. He became a older man with a dad bob, a drunk college bro about to hurl, and several others. As he found himself in the body of a middle aged Asian woman, he expected another whip, but instead the ride began to slow down for good.

No! It couldn’t be over yet! It had been fun being a few different people for a few seconds, but it couldn’t possibly leave people in the wrong bodies in the end...could it? He didn’t want to be stuck like this! As he was escorted off, he demanded answers, but none of the operator said a word. But another rider getting on explained it all.

“Why do you think it’s so popular,” He said, “People keep riding until they get their bodies back, or at least end up with a body they feel like the can live with...”

Read

After having his nose in the book for several minutes without finding any answers, Irwin lifted up his head to see Alma just staring at him.

She gave him a blank stare and asked, “Did you find anything?”

“There’s nothing in here about how to undo the body swap spell you cast by accident, but maybe we can check some of the other books around here,” He replied as he picked up another book to search for a solution. He noted at Alma didn’t even flinch and decided to add, “You can read through a few things too, you know?”

She sighed. “Ugh, I’m not a nerd!”

“Well, as long as you are in my body, you sort of are! And unless you want to be stuck in my scrawny, nerdy, male body for the rest of your life, I suggest you help me search through a few more of these books! I don’t want to be trapped in your body for any longer than I have to be either, but I’m pretty sure you will be much more upset about this than I will be if we don’t find a way to switch back to normal!”

Just One Drink

It was his first college party, and Warren told himself he’d have just one drink. Well, it seems no one told him that the drinks were part of some sort of twisted party game and were spiked with that new body swapping drug that was going around. You basically ended up swapping bodies with someone who drank from the same batch as you did; and Warren ended up swapping bodies with Katie.

Since it was a drinking game, the objective was to get people as drunk as posible. Basically, you kept taking shots to try and match with your own body again. If you did, you’d get your body back; but it was much more likely you’d swap with someone else and be forced to keep drinking.

Warren tried to examine the colors of the drinks to find two that matched exactly as Katie simply downed another drink. He looked at her suspiciously.

“You know we won’t swap back unless I drink as well, right?” He asked.

But the swap had already happened, and it was no longer Katie inside his body.

“I’m just here to get drunk, Babe. Or maybe hook up...if you’re interested,” Whoever was now in Warren’s body said.

“Uh...no thanks.” Warren said as he went back to studying the drinks.

Shattered

Scott tossed the small item into the air as he crossed the street. The strange man had given him this thing, explained it was magic, and then just seemed to disappear into a crowd of people. Magic? Yeah, right. The whole idea seemed stupid to Scott.

But after the third or fourth toss, he dropped the item onto the street. It shattered spewing forth a strange swirling light, which began to gather around Scott.

He could feel his body changing, but there was little he could do to stop it. Within an instant he had been transformed into a woman and the light dissipated. The item now shattered into dust on the street. It seemed he would be stuck like this.

Why?

Sean was overjoyed to see Jiaying approach with the Medallion of Zulu safely in her hands. He had been reading stories online about the trinket over the last half day, and almost every single one ended in catastophe. The last thing he wanted was to spend longer than the agreed upon twelve hours in her body.

Jiaying was just as happy to see Sean. She was eager to switch back as well. She smiled as said, “Here! Catch!” as she tossed the Medallion to him.

With his head thinking of other things, Sean didn’t have time to react as Jiaying’s throw fell short and the Medallion clanged a few times on a sewer grate before falling in.

“Why would you do that!?” Sean exclaimed.

“Why didn’t you catch it?” Jiaying replied.

“I was thinking about how much I wanted to swap back, and now we can’t! We’re stuck! This is just like the stories online.”

“Stories? What stories? Why didn’t you tell me there were stories about being being stuck after using that thing?”

“I only read them just now while we were swapped! This thing has a habit of going missing like that! But you had it! You had it and you threw it! Why?....WHY!?”

Inheritance

Allen walked into the mansion with his sister, Hayley. They had inherited it a few weeks ago when their grandmother died although neither even knew she had owned such a grand property.

There were no records of permits or maintenance work, yet the outside looked pristine. The entryway showed no signs of even the slightest amount of dust. Hayley stepped cautiously inside first and felt suddenly cold. Her eyes became lifeless.Allen took note. “Hayley, what’s wrong?” He asked.

“Hayley’s not here,” Hayley’s body said with a haunting echo to it, “My name is...Winston. I have been trapped in this house a long time.”

“Come on, Sis. This isn’t funny.”

“This isn’t a joke. Your sister’s body provides...a means to escape. I can finally leave this place.” Allen noted that Winston’s pauses were awkward.

“And then what happens to her?”

“I cannot answer that. I do not know.”

“Well, then take me. Possess me instead and let her go.”

“I would have preferred it. Being a woman is...unfamiliar to me. But alas I cannot. Now please, let me be. I wish to see the outside of these walls for the first time in a long time...”

Handle This

“It’s simple, Dude, we pivot,” Chase explained.

“Pivot to what?” Angela replied, “And don’t call me ‘Dude.’”

“There’s a new need, right? I mean, this Great Shift thing that just happened; we’re all mixed up. You’re stuck in the body of Chad from marketing. I’m trapped in the body of Amisha from accounting. None of us want this. It’s only been a few hours and everyone is going crazy. So we simply solve the problem and find a solution to swapping everyone back to normal.” “And just how do you plan to do that?” “There’s got to be some sort of codable solution. It’s just a matter of figuring out the original trigger and reversing it.” “I know you’re good with code, but I think that’s more than you can handle.” “No, being stuck in the body of a 50 year old Indian woman is more than I can handle. But this code? I got this.”

Struck

Paul took only a few seconds to react. He still couldn’t believe he and his girlfriend had just struck by lightning while running home after getting caught in the rain; and even more unbelievable was that the strike seemed to have caused them to swap bodies.

He immediately wrapped his arms around his former body. “I can’t believe it, Jenny. I can’t believe we’ve swapped bodies!” He cried with tears rolling down his cheeks indistriguishable from the falling rain, “But it’s okay. I can live with this. As long as we stay together, okay? Just stay with me, please! We can stay a couple, right?”

“It’ll all be okay,” His old body said flatly, “Of course we can stay a couple.” George honestly had no idea who Jenny was or whose body he was now in either. All he could think about right now was that there was a hot, soaking wet chick in front of him asking to be a couple. George had never had a girlfriend before, despite being almost 30, and he wasn’t about to turn one down, particularly a hot one. Sure, the circumstances were a little strange, but maybe he could at least get some before this hottie figures out that he’s not actually Jenny.

The Potion in the Attic (Part 2)

View Part 1 of The Potion in the Attic.

Tony had hoped that if the liquid in one of these bottles had transformed him into a woman, another one might change him back into a guy. He didn’t have any such luck. In fact, he seemed to becoming more and more feminine with each sip. One turned his hair blonde, another gave him perfect skin without the need for any makeup.

Some even had mental changes. For instance, after one drink, he couldn’t stop himself for rummaging through other boxes in the attic until he found one of his mom’s old velvet dresses from the 90s. After changing into it, he realized that while he didn’t want to wear anything besides cute dresses and skirts anymore.

He was pretty sure he had tried just about each and every drink in the attic, except one. Out of a sheer process of elimination, it had to reverse all the others, right? He looked at it almost sure it would work, but this was what gave him pause. He remembered who he was and had been, but several of the potions made him very accepting of the woman he was now. He wasn’t sure he wanted to go back to being his old self. Plus, it might be fun to bring a few of these drinks to the frat party tomorrow to see what sort of chaos he could cause. As he thought about that, his worried expression turned into an evil grin. Yes, that could be VERY fun indeed.

Single Mom (Part 3)

View Part 1 of Single Mom.
View Part 2 of Single Mom.

“Where the hell is she?” Evan muttered as he once again found himself waiting for Christine.

He had dropped her daughter off at daycare, and the plan was to now meet up before Christine had to go to work. Evan realized he couldn’t wait much longer. If he did, Christine would be late. He thought that maybe it would serve her right for not showing up time and time again, but he also know he couldn’t do that to her daughter.

And so, begrudgingly, he left and headed to her office. Evan knew he had no idea how to do her job, but he hoped he could at least wing it for the day. In the meantime, his texts to Christine were getting more and more frustrated. And yet responses were getting more and more sparse. He tried demanding that Christine show up at the office so they could swap back over lunch or the afternoon coffee break. He even finally tried making an actual phone call, which of course went straight to voicemail.

Already Doing This

“I appreciated the tutoring, Professor Willis, I really did, but I honestly wasn’t retaining any of it. But magic? I’m really good at magic!” Yumie explained.

“You used magic to swap our bodies? But magic isn’t real!” Doug Willis protested.

“You’re like a science guy, right? What does the evidence say?”

Doug sighed. She was right.

Yumie continued, “Anyway, it’s simple. You just take my final as me. You’ll pass for sure; you wrote it! Then we’ll switch back.”

“But that’s cheating!”

“Fine by me. Fail the test, flunk out of college, and go back to explain it all to my parents. Meanwhile, I’ll only have to live your life long enough to use my magic to steal someone else’s life! I think I’d try to take Emily’s body. She is so stuck up.”“You can’t do this!”“I’m already doing this!”

The Movement

Fiona had joined The Movement in hopes of achieving a sense of belonging. In hindsight, she knew she should’ve been more suspicious. But for some reason, all the warning signs about the movement being a cult passed her by until the strange ceremony that resulted in her swapping bodies with an older man named Jacob.

“I want out of this cult!” She finally demanded.

“It’s not a cult,” Jacob replied from inside Fiona’s body. It disturbed her so much to hear him speaking these words with her voice, “And you’re allowed to leave at any time

“But I want to leave with MY body!”

“What you don’t seem to understand is that it isn’t your body anymore. It belongs to The Movement, and The Movement has assigned it to me. It is one of the many sacrifices we all make when we join. We all give ourselves to The Movement -- our money, our resources, our bodies. We are rewarded by how much we give. I have given millions of dollars and countless hours of work to be rewarded with this body on The Alignment. You may leave now as you are, or continue to put more effort to be better rewarded at the time of the next Alignment. The choice is yours, Jacob.”

“My name is Fiona!”

“No, I am Fiona. You are Jacob. That is who The Alignment says you are.”

Fiona cried. She wanted to leave. But maybe if she stayed until the next Alignment, there was a chance she’d get her body back...

Five Years

Five years. Austin had been trapped in Wei’s body for five years. It was supposed to be twelve hours, but then Wei claimed to have lost the medallion that had swapped their bodies. Austin was always suspicious of her explanation, but he never had proof.

He was always focused on swapping back. It had taken a long time and a lot of searching, but one day a listing on eBay gave him hope. It was for “The Medallion of Zulu: A magical body swapping charm,” and the photos sure looked like the thing that caused him to swap bodies with Wei. The comments were mostly mocking the idea, but Austin reached out to the seller directly. This was probably a good thing, as it was taken down for “fraud” before the actual auction expired.

A few messages, a PayPal payment, and a short ship time later, the medallion was now in Austin possession. Meanwhile, a few emails to Wei went unanswered. Austin knew he would have to be sneaky if he wanted his body back. He fortunately somewhat knew Wei’s routine since she took over his life. He could ambush her and press the medallion to her, and they’d swapback to normal. Finally. But he also knew he had to be sneaky. If she knew he was coming, he was sure she would run as fast as she could in the other direction.

Help a Guy Out

Ricardo approached the beautiful blonde woman in the bar with his usual swagger and confidence. “Can I buy you a drink?” He asked.

“Uh,” The blonde woman stammered, “You can. But I feel like I should be upfront about this. I am NOT a lesbian.”

“It’s cool. It’s cool. Neither am I. This sitch with the body is just a...temporary condition.”

“So you’re trans? You were born female and getting surgery or something to become a guy?”

“Naw. I did this body swapping experiment at the university. I’m just stuck in this body for a few months, but I’m actually a completely normal, totally straight guy.”

“You’re a straight cismale who voluntarily agreed to swap bodies with a woman? That doesn’t add up.”

“The swap was random with another participant. I didn’t know who I’d swap with until it actually happened. But I gotta be honest that this swap has killed my game, and it’s got me frustrated because I’m still a dude inside here, Baby. Help a guy out, come on.”

With being called “Baby,” the blonde woman decided she’s indulged Richardo enough. She threw a drink in his face and simply walked away.

Alien Encounter

“Why can’t you do this?” A frustrated Ed asked as he attempted to use the alien body swapping orb.

“Only my species is able to manipulate the device,” L’xyl explained, “And since I am stuck in your disgusting human body and you are in mine, I’m afraid this is the only way to return to normal.”

“But why would you even do something like if we were going to get stuck?”

“It is a typical greeting to better understand a stranger. A brief swap is simply the norm. But I had no idea your species was so unevolved. For instance, stop trying to use your hands to control the orb; your mind alone should be enough to properly connect it into the location to switch us back. Your hands should simply be for focus and guidance.”

“What the fuck does that even mean? Can’t we just call tech support or something?”

Study Session

Dylan didn’t go to the library on campus all that often. Most of his course material were online, and it a big building with a bunch of dusty old books just seemed so outdated. And yet, he had agreed to help a cute girl in one of his classes study for an upcoming exam; she was hot enough that he just couldn’t say no.

By midway through the study session, it was apparent that the girl was obviously flirting with him. As they began to make out, there was a weird flash of light, and Dylan suddenly found himself lying on the floor.

“Claire?” He asked, looking for the woman he had just been making out with. He noted his voice sounded strange, but he thought nothing of it as he reached for his phone. But the phone was already in his hand, and that wasn’t his phone...that wasn’t even his hand! It was smaller with the early onset of wrinkles starting to form.

He used the phone’s camera function to see himself. A woman’s face looked back at him. She was a littl bit frumpy -- she was...one of the librarians? And yet the camera reflected his movements with her face...How did this happen? Why was he inside the body of a librarian!? As other people groaned and picked themselves up off the floor, he started to realize he wasn’t the only one who had swapped bodies...

Zapped!

Ludwig Von Braun cackled with glee as he roamed the streets testing out his new invention. All he had to do was point and shoot to swap the brains of any two subjects. The first pair included a businessman and a homeless person. Another pair included a woman and her dog. And then an Asian couple holding hands.

Niether Jin nor Mei had seen the man. It also took a few minutes to recover after being zapped, so Von Braun was long gone by the time they noticed their new bodies. But what did remain was a long line of body swapped victims. With a few questions, Jin and Mei learned they weren’t the only ones. A few more and they found out about the zapping ray. Along with several others, they set off to find the crazy man swapping everyone’s bodies.

They finally found him sitting ona a curb and crying. It didn’t seem right. The woman now inside of Van Braun’s body explained she was a college student who had been swapped by Van Braun before he snatched the ray and ran off. Tracking this guy down and getting everyone back to normal was going to be tough.

I Think I Can Fix It

“Don’t worry,” Ted told Keiko, “I think I can fix it!”

“I should hope so,” Keiko replied, “You built it!”

Ted paused from bouncing around the room to squat down to plus two large copper cables together and address Keiko eye-to-eye, “Yes, but I never intended for this machine to swap our bodies! It shouldn’t have even been possible!”

“Well, it certainly was possible, because that’s exactly what happened, wasn’t it?”

“I’ve said sorry before, and I will say so again! So, sorry! I certainly didn’t want to be in your body any more than you wanted to be in mine. But I have to say, I appreciate having your energy while fixing this; it’s making it a lot easier!”

Move In Day

I probably should’ve thankful about the results of the Great Shift. After all, I was one of the lucky ones; I hadn’t shifted at all. I was an 18-year-old guy moving into my freshman dorm before the flash of light, and I still was myself afterward. And yet I couldn’t deny that I wasn’t greatly affected by the results of the Shift. The one that I found out immediately was that my mom (who had been helping me move in) had swapped bodies with my new roommate, Jake.

For starters, having Jake inside my mom’s body as a roommate was just weird. Just that presence forced me get my homework done on time, avoid drinking in the dorms, and other things that basically kept me on my best behavior. At the same time, it was also hard to ignore that Jake wasn’t acting like the overbearing Asian mom he appeared to be. Of course, he was acting like the 18 year old college guy he actually was. He talked about “hot chicks” in his classes, wild parties he planned to attend, and so on. Of course, the worst part was when he talked about his curiosity towards my mom’s body.

I often thought about talking with the campus housing staff about getting a different roommate, but a part of me wanted to keep an eye on my mom’s body. I had already talked Jake out of doing anything too weird with my mom’s body, and I knew that would be more difficult if he wasn’t my roommate...

Placing Flowers on the Grave

Ever since the day her son, Dwight, died, Cheryl had visited his grave to mourn her loss. She noted a young woman placing flowers on her son’s grave. She didn’t recognize the woman as one of her son’s friends yet was sure she had seen her somewhere before. The woman seemed taken aback when Cheryl approached.

“Did you know my son?” Cheryl asked.

“I was...” The woman seemed to struggle, as if thinking of a response, “...an ex-girlfriend.”

“He never told me about you.”

“We didn’t...date...for very long. But he did often speak of how much he loved you. He cared so deeply for you, which is how I knew he’d be a good...boyfriend...”

Cheryl was baffled by the woman seemingly hesitant to use certain words, and she also seemed to be on the verge of tears. Before Cheryl could ask another question, the woman dropped the flowers and ran.

Dwight had wanted to tell his mom he wasn’t dead; that he had merely swapped bodies with this woman. But he signed an agreement that permitted him to tell no one, not even his own family. He had avoided going to the funeral, because he hadn’t wanted to run into them. He didn’t know how he’d react. Yet he still felt like he had to pay respects to the woman who died in his body. But why did his mom have to be there at the exact same time? It just wasn’t fair that he couldn’t tell her. He thought about going back to do just that, but instead he kept running...

Still a Game

Pierre had been playing the new role playing game on his computer for 24 hours straight. He knew he should take a break or sleep, but he just couldn’t stop. It was just too good. He often found himself imagining he was inside the game. A few hours later and it felt like the lack of sleep was getting to him; he could swear the surroundings of the game were actually becoming real.

Now he was sure he was dreaming. The walls of the game’s old castle were so lifelike and surrounding him. He picked up a sword; the cold metal felt so realistic and heavy. Then he went to look at himself in the mirror. Instead of the male barbarian he had designed, he was a dainty half-elf princess! He could only vaguely remember her character in the game; she had a quest where she whined about being forced to marry some lord that he ignored. He tried to force himself awake, but it didn’t work. He tried to see if he could will his form to change; he couldn’t.

And then he heard conversations on the other side of the door about bringing him down for the wedding; there was no way in hell Pierre was going to marry anyone, not in a dream and not in a game. But it was still a game, wasn’t it? Suddenly, he looked at the sword in his hand and smiled. What’s a role playing game without some senseless killing of NPCs?

Customer Service

Gabe had called up the customer service line and navigated through a robot voice and waited for over an hour before finally being able to speak with a human being.

He explained what was going on, and the woman replied, “I can help you with that.”

In the next moment, Gabe found himself on the other side of the phone call behind a computer at a call center and inside the body of the customer service agent.

“What the hell is going on here?” Gabe shouted.

“Sir, I am willing to help with your problem, but I cannot continue with this call if you insist on using profanity,” Gabe heard his voice on the other side of the line say.

“I don’t care about getting help anymore. I just want my goddamn body back!” The other side of the line went silent before Gabe could hear a dial tone on the other end. “Hello!? Hello!?” He shouted to no avail.

He attepted to call back, but outbound calls seemed to be blocked. For the time being, it seems that he was stuck in this woman’s body. And he absolutely hated it. The long nails made it difficult to do anything. He hated how long his hair was and how plump his body felt. A strong sickening scent of sweet purfume followed him wherever he went. He needed to figure out a way to escape this living hell.

Family Swap

“Where the hell is Sarah? I thought we were meeting as a family to discuss this?” Ryan asked his parents.

“Your sister is in her room. She’s crying. Understandably, she’s very upset about swapping into your father’s body. It’s hard for her to adjust being a different gender and older,” Maria tried to explain to her son.

“It’s hard for HER to adjust? How do you think I’m doing in your body? And yet I’m here ready to discuss what we’re going to do about this whole mess! And Dad’s here in her body doing his best. He just ran three miles to keep up with her insane fitness routine because she insists on him keeping her body fit.”

“It wasn’t so bad,” Enrique interjected, “Your sister is quite athletic and able...”

“That’s not the point, Dad! The point is that we’re all here trying to solve this problem while she’s just crying about it!”

The Party After (Part 1)

No one was quite sure what had caused the incident on campus that caused about 20% of the people in the area to swap bodies. It was enough so that everyone pretty much knew someone it had happened to, but it was still sort of weird when you noticed someone you hadn’t noticed before was swapped. It made the first frat party afterwards an interesting experience.

When Professor Lee shows up in a backwards baseball cap and flannel shirt, most of the frat brothers were sure she was there to shut it down. Helen Lee was known as a strict professor and the antithesis of fun. As it turned out, Brad Weiss was now the one in her body. Brad was one of the biggest party animals on campus, and wasn’t going to miss this one no matter what body he was in. Of course, he had to relate tales of getting sloshed with some of the others to convince people who he really was, which ultimately proved to be not that diffcult.

What was difficult for Brad, however, was trying to hit on some of his female classmates. While it had been easy with his former young and attractive male body, very few (if any) of the women at the party wanted to hook up with a middle aged chinese woman...

A Cabin in the Woods

Jim and Tyler had brought their girlfriends, Megan and Tina, to the remote cabin in the woods for a fun (and hopefully romantic) weekend. But a strange surge made the power to go out, and -- in a truly strange twist -- caused them to swap bodies. The two men inside the bodies of each other’s girlfriend went down to the basement to investigate.

Jim, now inside Tina’s Asian body, shined his flashlight on a bunch of wires. “Look at this,” He said, “This cabin doesn’t even have internet. What do they need all this for? This has got to be responsible for swapping our bodies.”

“I saw a breaker on the wall,” Tyler suggested, “Should I flip it? Maybe it’ll power on and swap us all back?”

“What if it makes things worse?”

“Dude, you are in my girlfriend’s body. How could things be any worse? Unless...unless you want to make out with each other this weekend?”

“What...no...weird, dude!”

“Why is it weird. I mean, I’m in your girlfriend’s body, and you’re inmy girlfriend’s body. It’ll be like we’re just making out with them without having to, you know, deal with them.”

Suddenly, Jim was considering not trying anything to swap back at all...

Iteration #56

The room seemed impossibly large to fit inside the architecture of the house, but that wasn’t even the weirdest thing about the space. As I looked around the room, there were clones of my body in suspended animation. Things got even creepier when a robotic voice echoed on the loudspeaker.

“You shouldn’t be here.” The voice said.

“Where even is here?” I asked.

“This is where you were born.”

“What do you mean?”

“Each time you die, your mind regerates here in a new body. And each time, it is more suited to your desires. And each time, improvemens are made. Your present form is iteration #56, Oliver.”

“Oliver? But that’s a guy’s name! My name is Olivia!”

“Desire for female form began in iteration #27. Memories between iterations are erased and replaced with suitable memories for each new form.”

“I used to be a guy? No way! No way! And who are you?”

“I am merely an AI to assist you and continue the iteration process. I am here to assist.”