Before long I had started to seek someone out, prowling in forums and communities in search of someone who might not only be wanting to make such a drastic life change but who would be open to the possibility of the Medallion actually working.
It was slow at first, not wanting to sound like a crazy person as I stayed pent up in my apartment. Bouncing from forum to forum I looked for someone like myself, a person who yearned for something different and who may take a chance to get it.
It was why I had come to the cafe, why I had hidden the Medallion itself beneath my clothes so I could feel it was still in my possession. It was all to meet the person I had found on a site for privileged idiots to vent about their problems.
Reading through the threads and chat rooms each and every day was a mind numbing and brain rotting experience. Stuck in my small apartment, watching my savings dwindle day in and day out I would watch as the wealthiest of the wealthy whined and complained about both the most inane things as well as problems that most would never even have the means to experience.
My cleaners keep speaking Mexican or something when in my home...
...And so in the end we had to fund the new library expansion to keep Kimberly in
the class...
My parents are being such fucking assholes. I wanted a Lexus but they got me a
Tesla for the environment or whatever...
Does anyone know how to fucking change a grade? I slept through my last exam and
my fucking asshole teacher failed me or something. Can I like, pay the dean or
something? If my parents find out I'm...
My ex wants to take our kids to the Hamptons, but I got the lodge in the divorce
so why she he still get to use it just because the kids want to go...
I can't believe they threw out my fucking shorts. Maria must have found them or something, that fucking bitch. Those things were fucking fire and made my ass look...
...So they paid me $500,000 to not come to grandma's funeral, what the fuck is wrong with those...
...And they still treat me like a fucking kid. I mean my trust gives me their
salary each fucking month, they should know their place...
... And NOW he wants to move us to some fucking place in the mountains like some
fucking Hicks! What about MY life?! MY friends?! MY...
Our driver's wife has come down with Covid, how can we best fire him and most
quickly hire a replacement?
Each if their stupid problems made my blood boil, with the proposed solutions being all the worse. From saying they should just have workers deported to suing teachers and schools for all their worth in retaliation for some perceived slight or paying off officials for all manner of reasons, it became apparent the people in the forum were all too happy to show their terrible side to the world.
Still, each day I bided my time in wait for someone to show up who seemed to fit the bill. If I was going to do this, to ditch my life and body for another, it would need to be with someone who was otherwise set up for life.
I had spent my life toiling away, working with my nose to the grind stone to get exactly back to square one. From working for the moment I could to help out with school, to all the late nights studying to get the right scholarships and eventually my many degrees. Where had it gotten me? Snubbed by my department and with moving back in with my parents on the horizon.
Why do that all over again when I could slip right into to a life with no financial worries or cares in the world?
After weeks of searching and waiting, occasionally dipping my ties into the proverbial waters I eventually stuck gold. The poster didn't seem to have a real problem, at least not one that would hurt me in the long term as far as I could tell.
Yet despite all this they sought something from the other people on the site. Over and over they posted about their problems, only to be largely ignored each and every time. With each post, every complaint, they would soon be overshadowed by groaning about rising interest rates on someone's fifteenth house or the insane price of alimony payments.
Eventually I stepped in, sending in a private message to give them a chance to vent more that they readily accepted. It came as a deluge, each day leading to another burst of replies and further grumblings about the life they seemed to be less than satisfied with.
As the conversations built to a fever pitch I finally let slip the all-important proposition, what if you never had to deal with those problems again?
It had taken some time to get them to open up to the idea. At first they had joked about jumping at the chance of they could, but soon closed back up once the suggestion of it actually being possible turned up.
Replies became more and more infrequent, worries that they were soon to disappear from the conversation building with each passing day. However, after a week without a reply I eventually got a message back. After hours turning into days of mulling over the idea it had finally seemed to sink in, the anonymous user finally asking.
You weren't making this up right? About the chance to be someone else?
From there it was only a short matter to seal the deal, offering up a little information about the medallion to get them to finally take the hook. Before I knew they had turned the tables, quickly bombarding me with questions about my life. Having spent the better part of a month delving into their problems I knew just want to say to reel them in.
Before long they were suggesting we meet up, offering up their body and life on a silver platter in exchange for my own.
"Hughes?" Asks a soft and feminine voice beside my booth, the sudden intrusion into my own solitary thoughts nearly causing me to spill my coffee.
Snapping my head up from the slowly cooling beverage in my hands I glance over at the figure as they slide into the booth across from me, my eyes falling to a...
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