2:07 PM -
Inside the dimly lighted office, two women were seated opposite one another. There had been a silent, businesslike mood over the room weighted down with previous meetings which still lingered in the air. One side of the desk was sat Queen Maxima, her eyes cool and serene. Across the desk from her sat a woman, nervously clasping her hands together.
"It's been over a year since we last met, Queen Maxima," the woman began, a slight quiver tugging at her voice. "If I'd known you were coming, I would've prepared…"
Maxima cut her off with a dismissive wave of her hand. "There's no need for formalities," she said, her tone firm. "I didn't come here for pleasantries. I came to know about my son. How is he? Where is he?" Her words cut through the air, carrying an urgency that silenced the other woman.
3:41 PM -
Akondo stood on the edge of a high-rise building, the hood of his jacket pulled low over his face as the sharp chill of the evening wind bit at him. He watched the city sprawl beneath him, his eyes narrowed in thought.
"It's been three days, and still, I haven't found out if everyone I switch bodies with dies because of my power…" he muttered, his eyes dropping to his hands. "But based on experience, they all have. Maybe it is because of me…"
A question lingered in his mind, dark and uncomfortable. "Does everyone I swap with die?" He moved his head upward, squinting at the sky as a flock of birds drifted lazily across it.
"Wait a second …" he said to himself as he thought it through, gazing at the birds. "The message in front of me always says 'swap bodies.' It never specifically says humans, does it? What if I tried to swap with an animal? Would that work?"
A new thought came to him which felt like hope, "If I can get an animal's body, I might stand a chance of survival without taking any life. Maybe… maybe there was a way to live without hurting anyone." He noticed a bird sitting on the branch of some faraway tree and watched it intently.
"If I can really switch with animals…" Akondo whispered to himself, a small smirk forming. "Then maybe things just got a lot easier."
With a new resolution, he turned and went down from the rooftop, pressing the button for the lift. The metallic doors slid open, and he stepped in, his eyes pensively on the reflection of him in the elevator's mirror.
A moment later, a young adult girl stepped into the lift beside him, her short party dress flashing under the lights as she stared at her phone.
Akondo glanced at his reflection, the faint ghost of a memory flickering across his mind. "Freddy. he died in an accident. But was it really an accident, or was it because of me?" He felt an odd detachment, shrugged the thought off. "Strange even if its actually true, I don't feel guilty… not even a little."
The doors of the elevator opened again, and a guy looked like around 20 year old stepped inside. He positioned himself in such a way that he was exactly between Akondo and the woman, who still tapped obliviously on her phone. Akondo leaned against the wall.
The guy smirked as his gaze slid over the girl's figure, pulling out his phone with a predatory glint in his eyes.
Akondo noticed, but chose to keep looking away, pretending to be lost in his thoughts.
Without hesitation, the guy moved his phone closer, his hand hovering just inches from the girl's backside. He snapped a photo, the click of the camera barely audible in the enclosed space.
The girl, oblivious to the violation, instinctively turned to face Akondo when she felt the disturbance, her eyes locking onto his. The guy quickly slid his phone into his pocket, then placed a finger against his lips in a silent plea for her to stay quiet about what just happened.
Akondo's stomach churned at the sight, but he turned his head back to the lift doors as the elevator ground to a stop on the first floor. The doors slid open and the girl took a few strides out, oblivious of the creep show.
"Thanks for keeping quiet," the guy said to him, his voice straining with fabricated bravado.
Akondo didn't say a word in response; he just walked out of the lift and kept walking.
The guy walked to the almost empty parking lot beside the building with an unshakable feeling of desolation under an eerie, uncomfortable silence.
Reaching his bike, the guy took out his phone and smiled, "That was hot and sexxy ass and the pussy?. Daymn...I wana fuck that pussy so bad i started to have boner seeing the pussy shape from pantie. Wish she was pantless i would fuck her there. I've gotta send these pics to my bros.".
"It's been ages since I got a shot like this."
Saying, he pulled up the photo, excitement dancing in his eyes.
But before he could send it, a hand shot out of nowhere, gripping him with a fierce intensity. Pain shot through his arm, and he whipped around to find Akondo, his expression steely.
"Wait, you… you're that fucking ass kid from the lift," he stammered, his bravado wavering.
Akondo tightened his grip, and the guy yelped in shock. "What the hell are you doing?" he shouted, panic creeping into his voice.
The guy swung a punch at Akondo, but he dodged it easy without intentionally reacting and then reacted with a swift blow that sent him crashing to the ground.
"Ever since I came back from Freddy's body, I can feel his strength coursing through me…and more then what I could ever Imagin ," Akondo thought, a flicker of confidence igniting within him.
He wrested the phone out of the guy's hand and, in a split second, had deleted the compromising photo. "There must be a backup app on here," he muttered to himself as he frantically scanned the screen. "I need to wipe it from there, too."
But the guy was on his feet again, fists clenched, and threw a punch that sent the phone flying to the pavement.
"You wanna fight, huh, kid?" he taunted, his tone dripping with aggression.
Akondo stepped on the phone of this guy and smashed it under his shoe. "Yeah Nigga.. I guess," he replied with a little bit of an edge to his voice.
"Hey! You broke my phone, you fucking ass!" the guy roared as, suddenly, his anger had overflowed, and he was advancing on Akondo, throwing wild strings of punches. Akondo easily dodged and threw a powerful kick to the groin area of this guy.
Guy folded down on the ground, wheezing with pain as he clutched his hurt balls, as
"I'm going to kill you for this, kid! Remember my name, I am Revan. And you will cry like a pig and ask forgiveness from me but I will not listen and destroy you " the guy roared with the voice heavy from anger.
Akondo kicked the broken phone part toward the guy / Revan's face and calmly walked away from Revans sight.
Akondo kept walking and didn't look back, each step hard and steady, finally able to disappear among the shadows cast within the parking lot.
.
.
.
After a while, Akondo reached a park and settled on a branch, looking out over the winter landscape. "I don't feel hungry at all, especially to what I should be," he thought, reclining against the rough bark.
"The winter looks different than last year," he thought. "Sometimes it does snow, and most times, it just stops."
His eyes wandered to a tree nearby, where a couple of birds were perched. "Anyways, I should focus on what to do now," he told himself, trying to brush the distractions away.
"I should recap first. Now I understand a few things about what's happening to me. First, I switch bodies every twenty-four hours… well, not exactly twenty-four hours. It's more about when I leave the last person's body. I dropped Freddy's body around 1 PM today, so I will probably have to switch again tomorrow at about the same time. Say I leave the new host's body at 3, 7, or 12; then the next day, the timer will readjust relative to twenty-four hours. When the appointed time arrives, a system will prompt with a one-minute count-down.
"That is all it… I think," Akondo summed up, looking down at his watch. "3:55 PM".
"I don't know how to initiate a body swap on my own, but I was able to do it last time. I understand now that I don't necessarily have to be touching the other person for this to work… I just need to look at them. In order to switch back, though, I need to concentrate very hard and focus, regardless of the distance between us." He gazed back at the birds. "If I do the same with these birds, can I really soul swap? I guess I could… or maybe not. But if it works, it might give me some relief. I could find a way to adapt to this situation without harming anyone, and I'd finally understand if people really do die."
Akondo riveted his attention on the plumpest pigeon among the bunch, and his determination tightened. "Change body," he said, firm in the silence of the park.
Nothing happened.
"Ah… it's not working," he thought, tingeing with a little frustration that he could not look deeper into this particular moment. He concentrated harder, but still, nothing changed.
He didn't blink, all attention fixed on the bird and willing his mind to effect the exchange. A half a minute had passed and, still, nothing had happened. Just before his blink, he felt a strange lucidity sweep over him; he could look within the pigeon and very clearly see its aura and soul. Then in an instant, he blinked.
His body was all of a sudden motionless; he lay still on the branch as he opened his eyes- only to find himself inside the pigeon.
"Woah… I… did it," Akondo thought, his body filling with excitement, though he soon noticed he could not hold himself steady within the tree. He fell to the ground with a light thump.
The other pigeon, out of the blue flew away.
"Come on, control this pigeon body!" he urged himself, struggling to regain his footing. Finally, he managed to stand up, though it was awkward and unsteady.
"That… that means I can survive without swapping into a human? Why didn't I try or discover this sooner?" he marveled, taking a moment to gather his thoughts.
He glanced at his human body sprawled on the branch. "Hmm, perfect! It's lying there so peacefully; anyone would think my body is just sleeping," he concluded, a wave of happiness washing over him.
The realization that he didn't need to take people's bodies to survive brought him relief. But that happiness was short-lived as a system notification popped up before his eyes: "Swap to a human body in 1:38 seconds; otherwise, you will die."
"What the… I need a human body?" he exclaimed in shock, panic creeping in.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, Saren stood at Akondo's house gate, pressing the doorbell repeatedly.
"Akondo… please open the door!" she shouted, her voice laced with urgency.
As she glanced around, she noticed a neighbor man who was bald and green eyes age of 50 was nurturing his garden.
"Are you looking for Akondo?" the man asked, wiping his brow.
"Um, yes," Saren replied, hope flickering in her voice.
"Yeah, you should! He was screaming last midnight and broke my sleep," the man said, shaking his head in disapproval.
"Screaming?" Saren echoed, her concern deepening.
"Yeah, then a neighbor came to talk with him, but he was using slang on the boy. I guess something happened to him," the neighbor explained.
"Who?" Saren pressed, her heart racing.
"Oh, that person? He died today in a car accident. What a coincidence, right?" the man replied, a hint of disbelief in his tone.
"Oh…" Saren thought, feeling the weight of dread settle in her chest. "Did you see Akondo?"
"Sorry, I didn't. But my wife said she saw him heading out somewhere around noon. I don't know where he went," the neighbor said, shrugging.
"Okay, thanks," Saren said, feeling the panic rise in her chest.
"You must be his girlfriend?" Asked the man.
Take care of him. His mother was a good person; alas, she's gone now. God knows what will happen to him," the neighbor said, his voice laced with concern.
.
.
.
.
Back in the park, Akondo, still in the pigeon's body, stood in front of his human form, desperately trying to get back. The system's timer was ticking down: 55 seconds remaining.
Even in the pigeon's body, he suddenly felt a jolt of pain surging through him. "What should… what should I do now?" he thought, panic setting in as he scanned his surroundings.
His eyes landed on an old man sitting a distance away, feeding the pigeons.
"I'm sorry if something happens to you or you die, old man, but… but I need to survive," Akondo thought, his heart heavy with guilt.
With determination, he forced his pigeon eyes to lock onto the old man. The pigeon's eyelids fluttered, and then he fell to the ground. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the old man's body.
The system notification popped up, confirming: "Swap completed."
Tbc.