12:00 AM.
The lights in Akondo's room were off as he lay on his bed, the moonlight streaming through the window casting a soft glow on his face. He stared up at the moon, his expression tense, before raising his hand to shield himself from the light.
"Did I... really? My body didn't change today. No chest pain, no signs—maybe… maybe I'm actually okay. Was everything just in my head?" Akondo thought, sitting up and glancing out the window. "Yeah, it was all just speculation. Nothing else."
But the doubt lingered. "Even if it was just speculation… I know I swapped bodies with Mom and that hot dog guy. But… I still don't know if my power was responsible for their deaths. Maybe I don't even have powers. Or if I do, maybe entering their bodies didn't cause it—maybe… maybe they were always supposed to die…"
Akondo got up, opening the window as a gust of cold wind brushed against his face, snowflakes drifting through the night air.
"I don't know… the last two nights my body changed around nine. But today, nothing. And all this… all my assumptions… I pushed Seren away because of it. I need to apologize to her." He reached for his phone, then paused. "No… not yet. I can't be reckless. I need to keep my distance until I know for sure if it's really over… or if I understand how it's happening."
He sat back on the bed, scrolling through his phone absently, his mind spiraling. "Maybe everything I thought was real was just… a misunderstanding. Maybe Mom didn't die because of me entering her body… I mean, that's just what I assumed. But what if I was wrong?"
He grabbed his hair, his voice shaking. "All of this… it feels so… so unreal."
"I wish it was. I wish everything that's happened was just a nightmare. There's no way this is real. No way my mom is gone. Gone… and left me alone," he whispered, his voice breaking.
He fell back onto the bed, tears rolling down his face. "If… if I ever find out my suspicions are true… I swear, I'll end it."
"I'll end my life," he choked, then yelled, "I'll end my damn life!"
"A killer doesn't deserve to live. If I… if I find out that I killed my mom… I won't let myself go on. I'll make sure her killer pays."
Suddenly, his vision started to blur, and a searing pain erupted in his chest.
"What the—again? It… it's happening," Akondo thought, his breathing becoming shallow and frantic.
The pain intensified, a sensation like thousands of knives piercing him from the inside, tearing him apart.
A message appeared in his vision: **"Body swap in 55 seconds, or you will die."**
"It… it's…" Akondo gasped, the pain making it hard to think. He pressed his hand to his chest, gritting his teeth against the agony.
"I won't… I won't let this happen. I can't risk it again," he thought desperately as the pain surged, each wave worse than the last.
His body felt like it was burning alive, the searing heat and stabbing sensations overwhelming his senses as he screamed.
Akondo was drenched in sweat, his eyes bloodshot as he fell from his bed to the floor. His mother's last words echoed in his mind, as vivid and piercing as the pain gripping his body.
"I will always be with you, Akondo. As long as you live, and as long as you remember me, I will never leave you."
The words repeated, each echo sharper than the last.
"Why… why is her voice haunting me now? Why?" Akondo screamed, clutching his head as if he could shut out the sound.
Then, another voice crept into his mind—a man's voice, deep and familiar. "Alright, Akondo, see you. Take care of your mom until I get back from my mission. Be a good boy."
"Dad… why am I hearing your voice too?" Akondo's thoughts raced as the memory surged back.
A scene flashed before his eyes: he was ten years old, watching his mother gaze at an old family photo. She didn't always need a picture, sometimes just reciting names in remembrance.
"Mom, why do you always look at pictures of all the elders? And if there's no picture, why do you just say their names? What's the point?" young Akondo asked, his curiosity innocent.
"Well," his mother replied, smiling, "in our religion, if you want to keep a deceased person at peace in the afterlife, you have to remember them. If I die and no one remembers me, I might lose peace in the afterlife—or even disappear entirely."
She saw the confusion in his eyes, then added, "Alright, tell me—who do you think are considered immortal?"
"Umm… people who never die, like gods?" he answered, unsure.
"That's one idea," she chuckled. "But in another way, anyone can be immortal."
"Even me?" Akondo asked, wide-eyed.
"Yes. You can become immortal if you do such good deeds that people remember you, even 500 years from now—like a truly great person. In my belief, when we die, if there's still someone left to remember us positively, we remain alive, in a way. It's only when no one remembers that we truly die."
Akondo tilted his head, skeptical. "But that doesn't make much sense."
She stroked his hair gently. "Maybe it doesn't. But every faith, every belief, values the same core idea—doing good. So, whether or not it's logical, it's about leaving something good behind. If we do that, we live on, even after death."
"I haven't done much that would keep me alive in others' memories," she added softly. "But as long as someone remembers me, I won't be gone entirely. If the last person who remembers me dies… well, maybe that's when I'll truly fade."
The memory faded, and Akondo's vision filled with another message from the system: "30 seconds left."
A fresh wave of pain hit, and he screamed louder, his cries piercing the quiet night. Lights flickered on in neighboring houses, people emerging to investigate the noise.
Akondo staggered, clutching the window frame, his thoughts wild. "No. I can't die. If… if I die, no one will be left to remember my mom. I can't let her soul fade. No matter what happens, I have to survive—for her."
Despite the excruciating pain, he forced himself to stand, gripping the window with trembling hands.
"15 seconds remaining," the system intoned.
A guy from the street who'd come out after hearing the scream—someone close to Akondo's house—called over, "Hey, is something wrong? Why are you screaming?"
Despite the pain tearing through him, Akondo managed to rasp out, "Get the fuck away… none of your damn business."
"Hey, kid, watch who you're talkin' to—" the guy started, but before he could finish, a notification flashed in Akondo's vision: "Body swap successful."
Akondo's own body collapsed onto his bed back inside his house, and in the next blink, he found himself inside the guy's body, looking out through unfamiliar eyes.
"I… I'm in his body. It happened again," Akondo thought, staring down at the guy's hands, feeling the strength in his limbs that wasn't his own.
Another person from a nearby house called out, "What's wrong? Is he alright?"
Akondo, now inside the guy's body, thought quickly. "I gotta respond in a way that'll keep them from checking on my house. That's why I told him 'none of your business'—to keep people off." But he worried, thinking, How would this guy actually respond to that?
Someone else from down the street shouted, "Ask if he needs any help. His mom just passed recently, poor kid."
Akondo, channeling the attitude he assumed the guy would have, shot back, "He told us it's none of our fuckin' business, so let's do what he says. Let the brat handle his own crap—he's quiet now anyway. Everyone, get back to whatever you were doing."
With that, he started walking towards the guy's house, and one by one, the others grumbled and returned inside, closing their doors behind them.
"Alright… this guy, the body I'm in now, he's Freddy—a gym trainer. I don't know much about him, but if I have to act like him to keep people from suspecting anything, I'll do it." With that thought, Akondo steeled himself and continued toward Freddy's house.
Here's an improved version that preserves the realistic feel, the internal dialogue, and Akondo's reactions while smoothing out the flow:
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Akondo reached Freddy's door and thought, "Alright, he lives alone, I think… maybe has a girlfriend or something, but I'm pretty sure he's not married. If he's alone right now, I shouldn't have much trouble inside."
He slipped inside, closing the door quietly behind him.
"Okay, first things first—I should head to his bedroom. He's not dressed for winter, so he was probably asleep." Akondo moved carefully, getting used to the bulk of this muscled body as he navigated the unfamiliar space.
Glancing around, he noted, "Alright, so this body swap happened at around midnight." He found a wall clock in the living room. "It's 12:13 now. I remember that last time I was in the hot dog guy's body, I checked the clock around midnight too. Looks like this thing happens based on when I left the last body… like the next night at the same time, I'll swap again. That might actually be useful to know."
He scanned the room, thinking, "I'll head upstairs and grab his phone to check if my own body's alright. I think I must've fallen onto the bed."
Just as he took a step toward the stairs, he felt a hand grab his arm from behind. He spun around to see a woman—a barely-dressed woman—clinging to him. She was wearing what looked like a sports bra, and… nothing else.
"Uh… why is she not wearing pants?" Akondo thought, trying not to look too stunned.
She rolled her eyes. "Why'd you leave me like this, idiot? And where are you going? You're not gonna finish what we started?"
Akondo's thoughts raced. "Okay, so she's either his girlfriend or… something else. Which means I'm definitely not alone here. Great, just fucking great that i am sure fucked up now " His eyes widened as he processed the implications. "Wait… were they in the middle of…SEX or something ? Oh, this is bad. Real bad."
[To be continued ]