"What all do you don't remember?" Mother asked me in a concerned voice. Aarohi had told her about my memory loss when I had failed to tell the parents about that.

"Hm..." I said. "Well..."

"Aunty," Aarohi said, "How can he answer that question? If he doesn't remember it he won't know that he doesn't remember it."

Yeah. But I don't want them to panic over that.

"It's okay. I guess I will eventually remember." I said.

"Is it amnesia?" Mother asked worriedly.

"As in movies..." Aarohi laughed. "No. He remembers most of the things, don't you?" She turned to me, "I mean you remembered the accident."

Yeah. The only time when Rahul Bhatt and I were together in one place.

"Yeah," I replied.

"See," Arohi said.

"Still there are things he does not remember." Mother said.

"Yes," it is safer to admit.

"Well..." Other Rahul's mom said getting up, "There are things in life that are best if we forget them. There is no use in remembering a painful past. You can start fresh." She turned to me with a beaming smile.

I expected her to be freaked out about that. But she was taking it better than I had imagined.

"And you should start going back to college, dear. You have missed too many classes."

College... Well, that is a whole other issue.

I can't go back to other Rahul's college. I don't know his studies. I will score zero in exams. Moreover, I won't even know the name of his friends or classmates. Amnesia seemed like a cool excuse then.

But I realized that I needed help. I can't deal with it alone.

I went back to my room and started thinking. What can I do about it? I heard a knock on the door.

"Please come in," I said. The door opened. Aarohi stood there. She walked in and closed the door and came to me.

"Okay, spill it." She said crossing her arms.

"Spill what?"

"Spill what is going on." She said. "Something is not right. I know that. I can feel that. Something is not right with you."

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to find a way out.

"What happened to you?" She asked. "Everything is different about you. Aunty just reckons it's because of the accident. But I think not. Something is fishy. Even amnesia does not explain this. Even the look in your eyes is different. Your attitude is different. The way you speak, even your body language is different. It's like someone else is inside you. A stranger."

I looked down. And stayed silent. After a moment Aarohi spoke again,

"I know that this does not make sense." She was speaking with caution, "But it feels like you are not you. That you are someone else. I know Rahul's eyes. This is not Rahul's eyes."

I looked at her.

"It's like staring at someone else. Like someone else is in there." She said.

"You are right," I said. Her eyes went wide. "I am not Rahul," I said. "At least not your Rahul."

She blinked at me.

"I don't know how I ended up here," I continued. I was not sure if she would believe me, but I was going to tell her anyway. "All I know is that I got into an accident. And when I woke up, I was in someone else's body. The other boy's body who got in the accident with me. Our souls got switched or something, I am not sure. Because I don't know where your Rahul is. If he is in my body or roaming around somewhere else or dead. I don't know. But I am not Rahul. Not Rahul Bhatt. I am Rahul Sharma. The one whose body lies in ICU."

Aarohi stared at me. She stared at me for a long time. I waited. I know that she might think that I am mad or something.

"You know that that doesn't make any sense, right?" She finally asked.

"I know," I said. "But that's the truth. I don't know how to prove it or anything. But...you yourself said that you felt someone else in here."

She stared at me for some more time.

"Rahul, if you are playing a prank on me I will kill you." She said.

I shrugged. "I wish if it was a joke too."

She stared at me for some more. Finally, she seemed to have accepted it. She sat down on the chair in the room, looking down at the floor. She seemed to be contemplating about the real Rahul Bhatt. His whereabouts being unknown can worry his well-wishers considerably.

I climbed onto the bed, sat there and waited.

After a while, Aarohi looked at me.

"So what are you going to do now?" She asked.

"Do you have any idea about what I should do?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"We should find Rahul." She said after a second.

"Well, trust me, if I had any idea about how to find the boy, I would have by now. But I am not an expert in finding lost souls. You may help me if you know how to do it."

She understood. She looked down.

"Do you think he is still in there?" She asked.

"In where?"

"In your body. In his body, I mean. With you."

"No. Well, even if he is how will I know that?"

"Well, how does it feel for you? To be inside someone else?" She asked looking at me.

I shrugged. "Just same content. Different bottle." I said. "Nothing is changed other than my body. My memories are intact. I can remember everything that has happened in my life so far. I feel the same. I am still me. And I feel sane. I am not mad. I don't even hear voices in my head, I think if he was still in here, I would hear him inside my head. But now...Just me. I am all alone in here, I guess. And I am still just me. Only the body is of Rahul Bhatt's."

"Where is Rahul then?"

I shrugged. "No idea."

Aarohi continued to look troubled.

"If he is in your body, when you die, he will die, won't he?" She asked in doubt and fear. "or will you go back to your body and die with it when your body dies? And Rahul will come back?"

"You have to wait for my death to know that," I said.

She fell silent. Then as if a realization hit her she looked up at me with sharp eyes.

"Aren't you the one preventing Rahul to come back into his body?" She asked. "Because you don't want to go back into your body."

"What?" I asked in annoyance.

"Because your body is damaged. Dying." She quoted. "If you go back in there, maybe you will die along with it."

"So?" I asked, really irritated now, "Are you implying that I am forcefully occupying this body. Possessing it or something."

"Yeah," Aarohi said, stepping a step closer. Looking into my eyes. "You would not want to return to your dying body. Now it makes sense. You would not want to return."

"Excuse me?" I asked, pissed off. "I am not doing this willingly, Okay. I did not get a say in this. I did not go to some portal in heaven to decide which body I want to be in. When I woke up, I was in here. And I am as fucked as the owner of the body is."

She crossed her hands and smartly looked at me. "Really?" she asked, unaffected by my outburst. "So do you really, truly want to go back to your body? If you find a way to go back, will you go back? Right now? Will you?"

I was struck dumb for a moment. And I could see that she was not an idiot for me to fool. She was smart. Way too smart.

"I knew it..." She said as she won. "You don't want to go back Ah...it will be all so comfortable to possess someone else's body when your body is almost dead. For all we know, you might be a ghost and is possessing Rahul's body."

Ghost? I did not think about that possibility. But I did not like the idea.

"Right now, Rahul might be in your body dying away." She hissed at me, "While you... You..." Her voice choked as she thought about the possible death of her friend.

"Well, he deserves that then," I said. "That little shit caused the accident. If he is dead, he deserves it." I was angry. Really angry.

"Don't you dare curse at Rahul," Aarohi stepped closer. "You..." She seemed to think of a word, "You parasite."

"Parasite?" I hissed back. Anger surged through me. "ha... I steered the car away from the boy. To save him, I gave my life. I could have died hitting the truck. It was my chest that got pierced with metal rods. I gave my life to save him."

"But you did not though," Aarohi said quietly. "You are here. Where is he now?"

I could not answer that. My anger subdued.

"Look," I said, "I didn't want this to happen. It was not intentional in any way. And seriously I don't know what to do. Believe me, if there was a way to bring back your friend, I would."

"Even if that means dying?" She asked smartly again.

I could not answer that honestly. Because, yeah... I did not want to die. I did not want to go back into my dying body at this moment. I was scared. Really scared... So I did not reply and just stared at her helplessly.

"Okay..." She said as if dropping the fight. "I get it." She stepped away from me. And sat back to the chair. "We can't let uncle and aunty know this." She said.

Well, I did not particularly want other people to know about this absurdity too. But I could not see why I should not let them know either. Because there was no point in pretending to be their son when I was not their son. It will come out one day or another.

"There are no eternal secrets, you know," I said. "If you noticed, they will notice as well. In a few days."

"No." Her voice was sharp again. "We can't let them know. They have lost a child before. They are not losing one again. They won't be able to handle it if they do." She seemed really concerned. "You can't just tell them that you don't know where their real son is. Not until we find out about Rahul. About where he is."

I thought of it. Well, it seems to be cruel to hurt the parents when they think their son is alive and well. But...

"But what if he is...gone?" I asked with doubt.

Aarohi looked at me with anger. "Don't talk like that. He is not... He.... He won't..." Tears came to her eyes. She wiped them. I felt bad to have talked like that.

"But, I can't pretend to be their son forever," I said. "They will find out. I mean, I don't even know how I am supposed to go back to college the next day. I don't have memories of your Rahul. I am not your Rahul. I can't just pretend to be him and convince people that I am him."

"I will help," Aarohi said. "I can help. I knew Rahul better than anyone. Even better than his parents perhaps. I can help you. So please, don't tell uncle and aunty about this yet. We can fix this. We will be able to fix this. Find Rahul and switch your body or soul or whatever. And then things will go back to normal. No one need to know."

I wanted to argue on that. There were many gaps in her plan. Uncertainties.

But I did not say anything.

"Please..." Aarohi said when I was not replying. I nodded.