'Borrowed' Body - Part Two

I stop listening as she pushes the door open, my eyes squinting as they adjust to the light of the backroom. While the overhead lights remain in their dimmed state no small amount of white and blue illuminate the room, the bevy of screens on and working make me wonder just how many people are meant to be assisting this girl when she is working normally.

I swallow hard as I stare at the looming machine at the back of the room, the two metal cylinders designed for in-person swaps sitting with a cascade of cable sheaths running between them and up into the ceiling.

Looking from the empty pod on the left, the small bare stool barely visible in the din of the room, I slowly turn to the shadowy figure in the pod on the right. I fight for a weak smile as I stare at Stephanie, the dim and bubbly twenty-one year old blonde who lives in the apartment above my own.

 

The young blonde sits in the seat, her slender legs kicking back and forth beneath the stools as a plush set of Ugg boots catch the limited light on each swing. Slim and delicate legs stretch up from the furry footwear, a pair of skin-tight blue skinny jeans painting her delicate frame up to her soft plush thighs and flared hips while her plump plush rear squishes beneath her and into the firm plastic stool.

Her body is covered by a white parka puffer jacket, the small size of the thing helping to outline her narrow waist the sizeable chest despite the thick downy layers in the coat. Fake fur hangs around the back of her head, the hood of the jacket resting on her shoulders as a cascade of platinum blonde hair hangs about her delicate cutesy face and fluffs out in a series of voluminous waves.

Her soft plump lips quiver slightly as she shivers on the seat, her hands having vanished into the pockets of the coat while she tries to warm up from her walk here. Her eyes almost sparkle as she look at me, the blend of bright green with a subtle hazel ring around the pupil causing her large doe-like eyes to catch the light.

"Hi Mr Hughes" she coos with a giggle, her dim and bubbly voice sending a shudder down my spine. "I'm sooo happy you showed, I don't think I could find anyone else to... ya know... do this on short notice."

 

Stephanie had approached me months ago with this proposition, or at least that's how she would tell it. The young woman wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, her subtle hints at organizing this having fallen on deaf ear for no short amount of time.

Cornering me in the laundry at least once a week she had bemoaned her planned holiday, a long trip to Europe that she had been planning for over a year at this point. Tickets had been bought, hotels booked and routes plotted in order to give her the most bang for her buck while she made her whirl wind tour from country to country.

However, there was one thing that she hadn't thought of. What if she needed to make up for any failed classes over the summer break?

With two of her four subjects failed she desperately needed to go to her summer classes, the make-up electives allowing her to keep progressing with her degree normally rather than needing to tack on an extra semester. However, this of course clashed with her holiday and this simply couldn't stand.

For months she had complained about needing to stay home, to sit around all summer in stuffy class rooms learning 'pointless crap' instead of enjoying the canals on Venice or seeing the Northern Lights. I had thought she was just venting for the longest time, a frustrated young party girl angrily huffing and puffing about her poor choices.

However, as the travel dates grew closer I finally muttered back about how I wish I could help. What I had hoped would just be taken as a dismissive bit of commiseration was anything but, the young woman soon looking at me hungrily as she proposed her plan in full.

From her contact in the Swap Clinic to the hope I would pass her classes for her she quickly unleashed the verbal flood gate on her ideal plan, legality and morality be damned. I was frozen in the deluge of information, the speed and rambling nature of her train of thought making it hard to really take all the nuances in.

What mattered was the brass tax of the plan. For helping to get her grades and course back on track and allowing her to go on holiday she would cover my rent and utilities for the intervening time and a month after. While only a small amount it was certainly enough to get my attention, the thought of not having to worry about my finances for a while in exchange for basically house sitting and learning... something really sounded fine.

 

"You got here early?" I mutter, looking to the blonde before shuffling towards the seat.

"Uh huh!" Steph giggles before raising a hand to her mouth, a slight burp following as she sways a little in her seat. "I needed to make sure Madi didn't fuck me on this..." she states, her giggly voice masking the venom in her words poorly.

The pimply young woman flinches slightly as Steph says her name, her lips pursing as she bites down on them from the inside.

"And you have the money on you right?" the young woman mutters as she shuffles over to the computer, her hands nervously moving over the keyboard carefully as she nervously begins to input the changes.

"Duh..." Steph sighs, rolling her eyes before shooting me a look like the auburn haired girl was somehow acting wrong. "...And I will give it to you once you do the... the thing like I told you."

Cocking an eyebrow I look between the two as I take my seat, my gaze shifting between the two young woman as I wriggle into a comfortable half-crouch on the stool. Coughing a little I clear my throat, my voice catching in my throat a little as I begin to speak.

"Um... I thought I was just minding you body while you..." I begin to bleat, my mouth falling open as I feel something begin to worm its way into my skull. The metal walls around me appear to hum, the sound reverberating into my skull and the soft brain-tissue it protected as I soon find myself stunned.

"Well..." the blonde giggles, her gaze narrowing as she shoots me a mischievous grin. "I mean you gotta pretend to be me right? If you're too smart and stuff then they'll know somethings up and so I'll be holding onto some of your old classes and..." she muses, pausing for a moment before looking to 'Madi'. "Like?..." Steph huffs, her eyes flashing wide as she prompts the redheaded girl to speak.

"Education, vocabulary, a few other things that should help you blend in" Madi sighs, wincing as she responds to the blondes question.

"Yeah!" Steph giggles, looking over at me as drool begins to run out the corner of my mouth. I swear I can feel something pop inside my skull, my eyes watering and glazing over as the delicate gray-matter feels like something was missing deep inside it while something continued to search through the supple squishy mass. "And it means that when we swap back I'll have all that stupid stuff you learnt up h..." she continues, her own mouth falling open as her pod begins to hum in tune with my own.

 

Crackles and pops fill my head, my own thoughts suddenly turning to a garbling series of grunts and disjointed syllables as more and more of my brain feel as though they've been secreted away to parts unknown.

My heart pounds wildly in my chest, terrified sweat building across my pale lanky form as the beating in my chest grows arrhythmic as my brain continues to diminish inside my skull.

With one final slurp I feel my senses slip away, an all consuming darkness flooding over me as I'm left floating in a void with only my howling grunting thoughts to keep me company and to let me know I'm alive. Pain shudders through my ethereal skull as I feel things begin to click back into place, my disjointed thoughts finally managing to grasp a coherent sentence.

"Fuuuuuck, oh my gawd what the fuck is even happening?" I think, my mind reeling as I listen to my thought rattle in my head with a dim vapid lilt. "What the... that is NOT how I fucking sound! I sound like a..." I shout in my head, the world snapping back as I find myself once again in a humming metal chamber.

"...fucking bitch..." Madi huffs under her breath, her gaze locked to the computer as she doesn't seem to register I had come to. After another few moments she looks up, her deep brown eyes darting between the two pods before hissing. "Okay, done. Now where's my money?"