Swappy Seconds - Part Two

My brow furrows however as I spot an image, the extreme distance on the picture making it fairly hard to make out. Tapping at the option on screen I watch as the app freezes for a second, the trait loading on my phone as the first thing to load is the simple button reading

'Purchase - $N/A'

Section by section loads into the profile for the trait, each broken seemingly by design as garbled text rests next to each identifier. "Can't be..." I mutter as I stare at the image of Megan, the tiny and mousey blonde grad student in her mid-twenties that Fiona and I mentored. The image on screen shows the young woman held standing by a series of padded metal cuffs, the frame behind her adjusted for her tiny five foot one build.

Her delicate pale chin shines slightly in the camera flash, a rivulet of drool having been wiped away from her brainless body in order to get her ready for sale.

Wild and curly sandy blonde hair puffs out around her head and drapes down past her shoulders in a massive yellow mane, the thick curly locks framing the dainty and delicate features of her face. Pale green eyes stare ahead through a set of small half-moon reading glasses, the pupils differing in size as they fail to focus without a mind behind them. Her nose is tiny and delicate with a slight up turn, the narrow and slight feature working in concert with her delicate jawline and faint cheekbones to leave her looking down right sweet.

Her build can best be described as 'tiny', her arms and legs lacking much in the way of muscle and sporting just the barest amount of fat to leave her with a soft feminine plush. Her torso is clad in a plain white button-up business shirt and a tight cream-colored cable knit sweater, her narrow waist and modest perky chest on display beneath the warm clinging fabric. Her legs are shielded from view, a long ankle length black skirt hanging from her flared hips in an attempt at some kind of modest yet professional look.

"Holy... shit..." I wheeze as I stare at the face of one of my former pupils, the sight of the drooling mindless husk of a young woman sending a shiver down my spine. I'd known Megan since I was a teaching assistant at Lathem College, the bright and extremely bookish young woman being nothing short of a teachers pet since she had arrived at the college.

She had quickly fallen in with my girlfriend at the time and myself, constantly asking questions and offering to help even while we were the helpers for the class. When we became lecturers and tutors for the school things didn't change all too much, with the mousey blonde always popping by our offices to say hi and ask for advice.

I hadn't seen her for over a year however, her moving into the Master's Program unfortunately coinciding with my redundancy from the college as well.

I stare at the image in shock, my mind spluttering out as it tries to comprehend why Megan would have put her whole... her up at the Swap Clinic.

"Did she... mean to do this?" I mutter, leaning back in my seat as I purse my lips. "Like... was this meant to hide herself while..." I continue, huffing a little as I struggle to think of what she could have been doing. "... While she does something I guess..."

As I sit there, my thumb swiping the screen up and down lazily, I slowly begin to smirk.

"I mean..." I muse, my heart racing a little bit as an intrusive thought slips from my mind to my lips seemingly in an instant. "... That would be one way to get back into academia..."

In that instant I feel disgusting, like an awful human being for even considering taking and potentially stealing the body and life of the poor petite blonde on the screen. Fiona and I had mentored her, our guidance and endorsement getting her into the Masters Program in the first place. How could I even consider taking that for myself.

At the same time, she did leave her body and life there in the Swap Clinic for one reason or another. Maybe she had sold it and it just fell through the cracks, maybe she was trying to hide it and was simply trying to avoid paying the holding fee for her body. In that case... would it be so wrong? Either she meant to sell it or she was skirting the rules and trying to break the system.

"I mean... all's fair..." I mutter, clicking at the purchase button with no small amount of trepidation. The app flickers for a moment, its programming struggling to really understand what exactly I was purchasing from the system. After a lengthy pause the app quickly updates, the cart not even letting me put in payment information before processing the pale blonde on screen as a completed purchase.

'Thank you for your purchase of

Megan Mary Donovan

Please attend the Swap Clinic at your earliest convenience'

Time seemed like a blur as I raced out the door, the power walk to the Swap Clinic on the other side of town practically winding me. I had quickly raced to the front desk, showing the message on my phone before being instructed to bring up my profile so that they could scan me in.

The poor young brunette behind the counter looked confused at their little computer monitor, the meek young woman merely asking that I wait for a technician in one of the side room. The wait in the room had been almost painful, the stress building inside me more and more until finally the door swung upon with a click.

"Mr... Hughes?" coughs a warm yet slightly hoarse voice, a short and stocky man plodding around past me as he sits down at the cramped desk across from me. The dark-haired man sports a thick beard and a thinning hair-line, his heavily tan skin wrinkling as he narrows his deep brown eyes at me and then the paperwork clutched in his hands.

"Yes... I..." I begin to mutter, my nervous words being cut short by the man across from me.

"I'm sure you're aware Mr Hughes, but you can't have two bodies at once" the man explains, running his thick fingers through the coarse hair of his beard. "Usually we have these set up as exchanges, but..." he mutters, his brow furrowing as he flicks from one piece of paper to another. "It seems there isn't someone on the other side of this."

The man pulls one of the pieces of paper free, handing it to me along with a pen. Glancing over the paper I find myself staring at a small form, a series of check boxes giving me a range of options to pick from. Before I can even begin to read it the man clears his throat, immediately trying to steal my attention away.

"We have a few options for your situation..." he huffs, holding his index finger to his thumb as he begins to count with his hands. "Firstly, we can sell off your body and life. You're a rather healthy man, I'm sure we could get a decent lump sum for you as a whole. Secondly, as there isn't another person on the other side of this we could sell your traits piecemeal" he explains, her gaze looking down at my arms and legs almost eagerly.

"What do you..." I begin to ask, only for the man to chuckle a little.

"There are a lot of para or quadriplegics who would be more than happy to pay a decent amount for your... spare parts. We would have to take time with that of course, it would be more of a steady income stream while we... liquidated those traits."

Swallowing hard I feel a shiver run down my spine, my stomach churning and my face growing green at the hought of my body being pulled apart piece by piece as it's used for spare parts and to repair or improve the bodies of others.

"We can also just leave it in your hands" the man states, giving a little shrug. "We'll hold onto it while you set up your trait profile and handle that as you will. We could also hold onto it for you, for a daily fee of course, just in case you want to change back or..."

The man trails off as I stare intently at the form, my mind racing as I wonder just what I should do. Sure, I could put it on hold but with what money? Maybe Megan has some sort of income, but how long could I keep making those payments? I could also just dump it into the Secret Section, hoping beyond hope that no one finds it like I had found Megan's.

On the other hand, could I really turn down the money? Even as I feel nearly sick at the thought of selling myself off, it would set me up rather nicely even if it locked me into this new life and trapping Megan... well... wherever she is.

"I..." I splutter, looking up as I fiddle with the pen. I quickly check one of the boxes, my hand shaking as I hand the form back to the man. "I think I'll...