Word Prompt: switched, different bodies, found.

Language Used: Purely English.

Word Count: 2492

Characters Used: Jennie Kim, Lalisa Manoban

 

 

“Wake,” a voice says, reverbrating through her system.

 

The woman opens her eyes, finding herself in a hospital room that she had no recollection of getting into—much less having these wires all strapped into her like she was a pincushion, but oddly enough, that is not the thing of most concern for her at the moment.

 

No, she feels that this is not right.

 

That she feels very unusual—like very, very different.

 

She feels that she’s in a different body, very different from hers.

 

What the hell is this?

 

She knows that this body isn’t hers—that this life isn’t hers, but as she draws back memories from her past life, she doesn’t even remember anything which makes it impossibly difficult for her to go back to her former life, when she doesn’t even know herself.

 

Feeling like everything is sore and throbbing because of the different machineries attached to her, she disconnects them one by one, feeling a sharp wince of pain with every needle pulled from where it was connected to her skin—she stood up once it was done, and for once she felt a little shorter from what she was used to be.

 

The woman soon finds a mirror from inside the hospital room’s bathroom, and she widens her eyes as she stares at the reflection for it was someone that she knew, someone she was familiar with, someone whose name come upon her mind in its sea of daze—

 

Jennie.

 

The Jennie Kim.

 

She remembers the woman who she loved the most before, the woman that she had despised so much after it had been over—but how can she remember these things but her recent memories eludes her? Of how she ended up in this mess, in this terrible switch up of fate, she don’t know, for even her former life’s name is lost from her mind—

 

“Lisa.” Jennie Kim utters, as if the misplaced soul inside her had beckoned this body to remember, and the woman could hear the voice inside her mind—a voice that she had never heard for a very long while, for she wants to forget.

 

“Lisa Manoban.” Jennie utters yet again, and the soul inside her could feel the opening and closing of the woman’s lips upon every word, every syllable of that seemingly unfamiliar name, and for once Lisa remembers.

 

Everything that she had tried to forget so desperately.

 

Everything about this woman that she had badly wanted to erase in every crevice of her life, in every part of her system but she had failed every time.

 

Lisa tracks her fingers upon her face, wincing a little as she stares back at her reflection, finding the once beautiful face now marred with cuts, wounds, and even different scars, and then she remembers, at the worst possible moment—

 

The crash, on how the car seemed to mold within her body, on how she felt her life slowly lose its shine, ebbing away into the unknown darkness that seemed to confuse her for a moment—

 

And then she wakes up, woken up by that unknown voice, into her ex girlfriend’s body who seemed to suffer some physical altercation she does not know about.

 

Lisa Manoban is dead.

 

Or at least she thinks, because she felt that crash in every part of her senses as she remembers it even though some of the events are tainted by Jennie’s memories, the crash seemingly fading into the back of her mind, waiting to be discovered again.

 

One goal seems to be ringing into her mind, wanting her full attention as if it could be a solution that she could do in this terrible switch up given to her by fate—that is, to find her body—or what remains of it.

 

Lisa walks upon the hospital room, quietly inspecting every crevice while she locks the door to refuse any guests since the machineries are beeping wildly after being unattached from her body. She tries to find anything that could help her slip away from this place quietly without raising alarm, since she knows that a lot of people are probably guarding this woman her soul is in at the moment.

 

Upon the closet she finds a change of clothes for a bodyguard and so she wears it immediately, discarding of the hospital gown and putting on the boots frantically while she raced through the inexistent time pressure she had put upon herself, wanting to get out of this place before someone could even notice that she was gone.

 

Still a feeling unnatural with the body that she would never feel used to, she opened the windows that could fit this body she has at the moment. Lisa peered through the open gap upon this building that she’s in, a smile settling upon her face as she finds it just high enough to land perfectly.

 

The woman jumped without any second thought even though she could feel the body shudder against the present height, as if Jennie’s soul is still inside her, reacting through the things that she’s doing—but oddly, the soul doesn’t have any control.

 

She drops upon the ground with barely a thud, accounting for this woman’s small frame as she barely could escape a broken ankle or two from the fall, but it was enough for her to hit the ground running, moving closer towards the central entrance of this hospital she figured out where she is.

 

Dozens of people were rifling around the entrance and exits of the emergency room, and she could easily see the black suit wearing men that seem to inspect and ogle each and every one of the people going in, but they suddenly stop that as they seem to hear something from their earpieces, beckoning them to rush inside the building.

 

Seems like the people working for Jennie Kim had been notified that she’s missing.

 

Lisa picks up her pace, marching towards the entrance of the hospital room as she moves closer towards the entrance, using all of her might to be quiet while she slowly entered the place, using her own memories and trying to keep it tainted from Jennie’s own memories because she knows this place like the back of her hand.

 

She slowly shuffles through the spotless hallways of this hospital that she had been in for countless of times until she finds the room where all the corpses could be found—the morgue, a place that she had never been in because of this job that she had done while she was in her own body.

 

Lisa does not know what she would do when she finds it, at least.

 

She doesn’t know if she could even stare at her own corpse while she’s in another body, much less let the thought that she’s already dead sink in her mind, for she is still in denial at this point—like this is all a fever dream, something that she would soon wake up from.

 

And so Lisa opens the door, wincing as her skin touches the cold metal doorknob that opens immediately upon just one twist—and the woman stares at the different bodies all covered with the same white cloth, as if giving off a message that everything becomes equal upon death—but she does not let her own mundane thoughts interfere through the current mission she has in mind.

 

Hurriedly she grabs two gloves upon the desk nearby and begins searching through the different corpses in the room, but somehow she does not find her own body upon the ones laid down upon the metal tables, even the ones already inside those drawers labeled with a name—where is she?

 

Before she could even get out of the morgue a nurse suddenly comes inside with another, giving a side eye to the corpses inside that Lisa had luckily covered again, leaving no trace that it had been trifled upon. Lisa only deems it as a disturbance before she hears something that immediately gets her attention.

 

“Did you know? I heard it from Philip that one of the corpses suddenly went back to life—they’re in one of the rooms at the moment, while that heiress in the VIP floors suddenly disappears without a sound.” The nurse says, and the sudden gossip pricks Lisa’s ears; could it be her body?

 

“What room is it? I heard from the nurses who moved the corpse that the woman was indeed beautiful.” The other nurse says, and the first nurse only chuckles as she hears that sentence from the other.

 

“Room 305, I think. They’re going to put her there, since she was supposed to be in that room but was deemed dead after they rescued her from a car crash nearby.” The nurse says, pushing the other outside the morgue as Lisa releases a shaky sigh, realizing that she’s right.

 

It’s her body in that room, it’s where she belongs, and she remembers how she had out after that accident, and connecting the things the nurse said, she really did die.

 

Came back to life, because of this weird switch up that probably happened, but who is the one inside her, when she could feel Jennie’s soul still in this body, reacting to the things that she had been doing for the past hour?

 

But first things first, she has to go there, in that room, and figure out once and for all what had happened and why she had been like this ever since the car accident—and maybe the soul inside her body could answer that.

 

So Lisa races out of the morgue where she had been in, moving out towards the staircases and climbing the floors as fast as she can, noticing the soreness of whatever injury she has disappearing as she reached the designated floor and rifled through the different rooms until she found it, the numbers 305 written upon the door.

 

She opens the sliding door quickly and widens her eyes at the sight that is before her.

 

Lalisa Manoban lays down upon that hospital bed, an oxygen mask over but her eyes stare straight into the newcomer, and upon seeing her Lisa could suddenly feel all the bones in that body, broken into pieces, making her fall down and kneel upon the ground after she had shut the door unconsciously.

 

She grits her teeth as Lalisa stares at her without fail, without even blinking once, and Lisa could feel every inch of the pain her own body is going through as much as she could feel the woman’s stare upon her—nevertheless she struggles to stand up, moving closer towards the bed even though she felt like just one move could shatter everything into pieces.

 

“Who… who are you?” Lisa gritted her teeth as she utters every syllable, and immediately she feels all the pain disappear as Lalisa breaks her line of sight from the woman—now staring at the walls colored white, as if something else is there, standing quietly but Lisa could not see anything.

 

“I am what you make me to be—your enemy, your friend, a stranger who happen to be inhabiting your body at the moment.” A voice says, the same voice who had woken Lisa up in Jennie Kim’s body, the same voice who is probably behind the things that are happening.

 

“But… why? Why me?” Lisa asks, gritting her teeth as she got ready for the next time that Lalisa looks at her, sending her that pain that would probably kill her if it was true, but for now she demanded answers; answers that only this mysterious being could give her.

 

“You always wished to understand the things that had happened in your life… I do not know if that is only typical human nature, but I am deeply fascinated by how you think.” Lalisa says, a smile christening those otherwise unmoving lips of hers, never minding the tube that is probably the reason why her body is still breathing at this moment.

 

“By how your mind seems to wonder about the things that you certainly cannot control… or how you had always wanted to know what that specific woman had thought every time that she was with you.” Lalisa says, lifting up her hand and pointing at her, pointing at Jennie Kim, and Lisa could only stare as an answer.

 

“So I will give you the power to know—to be in her shoes. I only have one condition.” Lalisa says, a chuckle escaping from her lips that sounded hoarse and out of breath, and Lisa unknowingly holds her breath as she hears those words from the body she had usually called as hers.

 

“Go back here at this same time tomorrow, and tell me your answer. Tell me if you still want to live after all that you had known, or if you would like to let go.” Lalisa says, and at that second she stares straight at Lisa, those intense stare ripping through every fiber of her being, seemingly breaking every bone, tearing through every muscle as the pain made her fall down upon her knees yet again—

 

As if this strange soul inhabiting her body had wanted her to feel death.

 

“It is yours to decide whether you should continue your life, since you are still young.” Lalisa says, and it seems like a long while before she closes her eyes, and immediately her body is rid of any pain—and she feels as if the words get jumbled in her mind, but she remembers the very reason why she had been like this.

 

She wanted answers—and this was fate’s wretched way of giving it to her.

 

Where would she even start?

 

How would she even get the answers that she had desperately wanted for a very long time when she doesn’t even know what questions could be answered upon this situation that she has at the moment?

 

Lisa only sighed as she knew that someone would be bound to come inside this room and check this body that lay in a comatosed state because of the things that she had broken because of the accident, and so she steps out of the room, shutting it behind her while she wore the cap that she found in Jennie’s room, covering her face properly while she marched out of the hospital.

 

Sitting upon the curb nearby, she took a moment to close her eyes and hug her knees, trying to focus real hard into taking a look at Jennie Kim’s memories, as if the clues she desperately needed to the answers she had craved would be found there.

 

But to her surprise, Lisa only finds pleasant memories, of her smiling while she stares at the love of her life—making even more questions arise from her mind.

 

If she was happy, then why did she end everything?

 

What had happened to you, Jennie Kim?