CARA

Both of us screamed and before I knew it, I was in Lorraine’s arms and I started to slump down the floor. The familiar darkness started to engulf my sight once again and before my eyes shut close, I saw myself—my body—screaming at the top of her lungs and then that faded too along with everything else.

By the time I regained consciousness, I was back in bed. Lorraine was regarding me with concern and I would have been thankful if she was really my sister. If only she knew that she was looking at the woman who was her sister’s enemy. If only she could see…

And then it dawned on me again. Me looking at my own face, me screaming at my own face. I sat upright on bed, the c-collar restricting any head motion. I looked around the room. Lorraine almost jumped to her feet but she was able to recover fast and placed two firm hands over my shoulders.

“Bridgette, you should really calm down.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s in her own room, resting. She passed out a few seconds after you did. Dr. Stein said that the two of you must have some sort of psychological trauma after everything that happened.” Her voice was too gentle it helped ease down my anxiety.

But every time I remembered my face when I looked in that mirror, when I saw my face on someone else’s, panic rose up my throat. I had to do something. I had to go to Bridgette.

“Who is she?” Lorraine asked, sitting on the bed beside me. When she realized that she was still holding my shoulders, she took it back in an instant and looked away. “Do you know her? Why was she with you during the accident?”

“I…” I didn’t know what to say. Of course I could tell her that that lady was me but inside was her sister, my high school enemy, the woman who ruined everything I could have had ten years ago. “She’s a friend,” I decided to answer. Now that the medication has finally worn off and I could speak normally, I wanted to cry. I was not hearing my voice but Bridgette’s.

God, what is happening? Am I going insane?

I knew I had to see her. I had to talk to her.

BRIDGETTE

Dr. Pohl was talking to the man in checkered polo shirt. They looked serious speaking in low voices.

“Oh my God…I’m crazy, am I? I am having delusions…” I cried out. Oh shit, I did not even sound like me. My voice as soft and I just freaking realized it.

The two men turned and looked at me lying on the bed.

“Sweetheart, please calm down. Why did you get out of your room?”

“Where is she?” I demanded. “Where is she?”

“Do you mean Ms. Finn? She’s in her room, resting. You both had…” I knew Dr. Pohl was looking for the right word. “You are both traumatized,” he managed to say. “I suggest you both take it slow. You can meet Ms. Finn when the time is right—when you don’t have to scream and faint upon seeing each other.”

That was the moment that I realized I was also screaming—no, that the person inside my body was also screaming. She must also feel the same thing as I did. Dr. Pohl’s words gave me reassurance that Cara did not do anything stupid. I couldn’t have her take my body somewhere else such as the psych ward.

CARA

I tried to think of ways on how I ended up inside Bridgette’s body. I wanted to look through a mirror once again, but most part of me objected because of fear. I was still in denial and I didn’t want to see proof.

It can’t be. There is no scientific or logical explanation to what is happening. I must be dreaming. I might be in a deep coma in a hospital pretty much like this one.

But the noise outside the door, the busy footsteps, the muffled overhead speaker booming every now and then, the strong rain outside my window…they all seemed real. I pinched my arm—Bridgette’s arm—and I felt the pain.

What if it’s true? What if I’m not crazy or I’m not in a coma? What if something happened and I really am inside Bridgette’s body?

My head ached. It was in protest. It couldn’t handle the stress it has been through from the moment it woke up. I decided to follow the doctor’s advice and rest. I knew I would not be getting any sleep, but I had to follow the rules if I wanted to get what I needed and that was to see Bridgette. Myself. Whatever. We really needed to talk.

Lorraine was talking to the phone once again. This time, she sounded irritated. I opened my eyes and looked at the time. I slept for two hours.

“Fine. Take your time. Don’t blame me if you arrive and see your daughter inside a freaking mental institution.” She then threw the phone on the table, letting it slide to the center. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back, her black tresses falling behind the chair.

She was tired and pissed off. And she was afraid of her sister—me, Bridgette. Whatever.

I cleared my throat and Lorraine opened her eyes. She turned her head and asked, “Do you need anything? The doctor said you can eat something soft. We could start with porridge or something.”

At the mention of food, my stomach began to make a noise. “Can I have a glass of juice, please?” I asked, needing more glucose than anything else.

Lorraine frowned and then she smirked but she stood up to go to the door.

“What?” I asked.

She looked over her shoulder, one hand on the doorknob. “Nothing. You said ‘please’. I’ll be back in a minute.” And then she was gone to get me some juice.

Now that I was alone, I started to think of my next move. How could I go to Bridgette without causing alarm?

An idea suddenly came to mind. As a nurse, I knew everything there was to know in a hospital. For one, nurses were usually staffed short in the evenings, visitors were not allowed and most of all, everything was quiet. I just had to make sure that I would not do anything stupid this time—that Bridgette would not do anything stupid.

BRIDGETTE

I waited until the man who called himself my father—who was in fact Cara’s father—left the hospital. He said he would get me more fresh clothes. He asked for my keys but I didn’t know where they were. The nurse informed him where to get it after the emergency team took us from the site of the accident.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally found myself alone in my room. People were already starting to disappear, noises started to diminish as night finally dawned. Visitors had to leave patients behind to rest.

This time, I didn’t try to get out of bed. I only laid there alone and fully awake. Sleeping was the only activity I had been doing and it was not such a big loss for me to miss a few hours. I stared up at the ceiling, watching the still shadows.

It was almost two hours later that I heard the creak of the door. At first I assumed it was Cara’s dad, but it was a slimmer figure holding something up—an IV bottle. I immediately sat up when I realized who it was.

It was me!

Well, technically, it was my body. I had the urge to scream once again. It was creepy and it was freaking unbelievable to be staring at your own image. Of course unless you had a twin sister who looked exactly like you. But I only had one sister and the lady standing before me was Cara wearing my own body. Hell, that even sounded weird!

I stopped myself from screaming. It would only attract the attention of the nurses and both of us would only be pushed back in our beds. After the shock of seeing my body standing just two meters away from my bed was the anger.

I decided to jump out of bed, tearing at my c-collar and going for Cara—or me. “You! How did you do this?!”

She frowned. “How the hell would I know?”

Oh my God, I just heard myself talk! Goosebumps on my arms and neck. It was like watching a freaky horror movie. “You give me back my body now!” I started to hold my hands up, ready for another round of pulling hair and scratching skin when I realized that I would only be hurting myself—literally. I didn’t want to do that. The cat fight would have to wait until I was secured inside my own body again. “Give it back now…” I demanded once again, not daring to take another step closer. Looking at myself was weird enough…getting closer would be unthinkable. I didn’t know what I would have done.

“I know how you feel, okay? I want my body back as much as you do but I didn’t do this!”

“Of course you did! You did some kind of voodoo on us and I am trapped in a body with a freaking cup A for breasts!”

“What the hell are you talking about? And what cup A? I’m a cup B!”

I cupped my breasts--her breasts--and said, “I know breasts. This is a cup A.”

Cara looked at me incredulously. “We found ourselves trapped in each other’s body and you are worried about breasts? How shallow can you get?”

“I only meant I don’t want to be trapped in another body especially yours!”

“Well, neither do I! So, if this is some sort of game for you, stop it now and give me back my body.”

“What made you think I would give up that,” I pointed at her—my body—with grace and slapped my—her—small hips, “for anything like this?”

CARA

My mouth dropped open in astonishment. Bridgette was talking nonsense. How could she even blame me for what happened? How the hell would I have the power to come up with something horrible as this?

“You know what? Why don’t you stop talking?” I said in a hushed tone. “I can’t see myself talking the way you do. It just freaks me out. Instead of blaming each other, why don’t we just figure out what the hell happened, how it happened and who is really responsible.”

She rolled her eyes. Okay, now I knew that I didn’t look that good whenever I did that. “Fine,” she circled around and walked back to her bed. We didn’t talk for almost a full minute and I thought it helped. She appeared calmer. God, it was hard to look at her without the hairs at the back of my neck standing up. “At least now we know what the hell happened.” She looked at me dryly. “Obviously, we…switched…swapped, whatever you call it.”

“But how?” The always analytical part of me asked aloud.

“How the hell would I know? We shouldn’t really focus on that. We have to find a way to get back.”

We fell silent once again.

“Don’t do that,” Bridgette snapped at me in the dark.

“Do what?”

“Don’t chew on my nails! Do you know how much those nails cost?”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine,” I uttered, pulling my hand away from my mouth. “Happy?”

“Stop doing that. It is not hygienic.”

“I know, I’m a nurse.”

She looked shocked. So that was how I looked when I was surprised.

“You’re a nurse?”

“Yeah,” I answered, already deep in thought of how we could solve our big problem. “What do you think we should do?”

“Is it possible that we can go back to the place of the accident and wait for another car to almost kill us?”

“You think it is because of the crash?”

“I saw a movie about it. Two bodies switched after an accident. Their souls kind of got ripped out of their bodies because of the force of the crash and they ended up in each other’s body.”

I cringed. “That doesn’t sound right. It not logical.”

“Can you see us now? Hello? Do you see any other logical explanation for this?” She waved her hand between us. Bridgette slumped in frustration. “I shouldn’t have entered that restaurant. I shouldn’t have drank that tequila.”

“So now you’re blaming the alcohol. Great.”

“No, mostly I blame you.”

“And here we are again.”

“If you weren’t sitting at that bar, I wouldn’t have seen you ergo I wouldn’t have talked to you, you wouldn’t have pissed me off and I wouldn’t have to come after you for a fight.”

“Stop right there! I didn’t piss you off. It was you who approached me in the first place!”

“Whatever,” she waved off, looking to her right. She couldn’t stand looking at herself and I understood that. It was really creepy.

“We should revisit that place. We have to recount everything we did from the moment the day of the accident happened. There must be a link there somewhere.”

I was almost surprised that she agreed and nodded. “We should do that. But first, we have to get the hell out of here.”

“We can always get out of here anytime we want. All we have to do is sign a waiver. This is a hospital, not a prison.”

“Fine. Tomorrow morning, we have to get out and switch back to our bodies. I have a lot of work waiting for me.”

“And I need to go back to my work.”

“I can’t stand another day with your father.”

“Excuse me?”

“No offense, the guy is a good guy but he’s too smothering. All lovey-dovey…not my type.”

“He’s my dad. Of course he’s lovey-dovey.”

“Not mine.”

“I already figured that out. But Lorraine seems nice. She never left my side.”

“She’s here?” she looked surprised.

“Yeah and she’s really worried about you,” I added.

She just frowned and kept silent. I then watched her, my own body, lay back on bed and struggled with the comforter. “For now let’s rest. You better not run away with my body because I need it back.”

“And the same goes with you. Don’t smoke, okay? And I’m lactose intolerant so no dairy products.”

“And I’m allergic to nuts. Never even try smelling one.”

“Fine,” I answered and took a step back. “Let’s just hope you don’t piss me off too much to consider eating one.”

“I’ll behave like an angel if it means getting out of this hellish nightmare.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

As I walked back to my room, I was praying that tomorrow would bring us a miracle.