Five Minutes Too Late

 

Clair walked into her apartment to see her boss’s second in command, Mitchell, sitting there with two of his goons.

“How did you find me?” she said. A horrible feeling started in her stomach. She knew it was all over.

“No one can hide from the Boss. He has eyes and ears everywhere. Did you really think he would let you take an asset like that body without his permission?” said Mitchell, standing up and gesturing towards the table where the device sat, the same device she had used six months ago to trick ‘Jasmine’ out of her body.

“No, please. I don’t want to go back to my life. Please, I spent years paying off my debt in those vile clubs. I paid my debt back three times over, yet I was still made to serve those disgusting men your boss calls friends.”

“Oh, you won’t be going back to your body. No, I think your body is currently occupied by a lovely woman who just wanted out of her life. Where is the real ‘Jasmine’, you wonder?”

Mitchell pointed to one of the very tall goons standing behind him.

“God, I miss my body,” the big, tall bodyguard said, looking Clair up and down.

“No, no, no! I don’t want to swap into that body. I’m sorry I stole your body, Jasmine!”

Mitchell stood up and laughed as he walked over to the table and sat next to the device.

“Don’t worry, Jasmine doesn’t want her old body back. She likes the body she has now, and she’s given me permission to take hers from you. So you and I are going to swap,” said Mitchell as Jasmine grabbed Clair and pulled her towards the table.

“This is mental!” said Clair as she was tied to the chair and strapped up to the device.

Jasmine, from her new body, grabbed Clair’s hair.

“I do miss my hair!” she said as she turned on the machine.

The machine activated. Clair felt the familiar sensation as everything went black for a moment.

When she opened her eyes, she looked down in horror. She was wearing Mitchell’s clothes. She had Mitchell’s hands, Mitchell’s body and Mitchell’s face.

Across from her stood her former body — Jasmine’s original body — but Clair knew Mitchell was now inside it.

“Perfect,” Mitchell said, looking down and admiring his new body.

Jasmine, still trapped in the huge bodyguard’s body, smiled at him.

Before Mitchell could really start exploring his new form, the door burst open and armed police swarmed the room.

Clair was so glad to see the police until a massive policeman pushed her to the ground and put handcuffs on her. She was confused until the officer said,

“I’ve been waiting a long time to do this, Mitchell!”

If only they had arrived five minutes earlier, she would have been the one being comforted by a female officer, like Mitchell was in the body she had hoped to escape this life in.

Jasmine was also arrested, arguing that Mitchell was in her body as she pointed at him. Mitchell, however, was acting very convincingly as the scared hostage. 

The only problem for Mitchell was that the machine had been taken by the police. They were unaware of its power. If they found out what it did, that would be a massive problem for him, and his boss would not be happy about it. It was not supposed to be taken out of his headquarters.

He decided that the police were not that smart and chose to wait before telling the boss that they had taken the machine. He had a body to explore.