The EveryMan Vial

 

When Tyler picked up that chintzy necklace from a tourist shop on the Venice boardwalk, he also took on a curse. During the next lunar eclipse, the necklace would steal Tyler's consciousness, his very essence, his soul , and seal it within itself; at the same moment, my own soul would be thrust into Tyler's vacant body and become its sole inhabitant. Two months after Tyler's vacation in California. By then, he had flown back home to Idaho, and resumed classes. It was Friday night, and Tyler's football team was playing the homecoming game. The team won. It had been an awesome game, the crowds in the bleachers were going wild, and he was feeling pumped. It was then that the eclipse happened. For him, it was painless. A sensation so sudden and so incomprehensible that Tyler didn't even have a chance to realize he was in danger. For me, however, it was exhilarating. Like falling from an airplane, traveling outside of my body was a terrible and awesome rush. But that wa...

 

 

 

 

"I knew it... I fucking knew it!" The deep baritone of my voice echoed off the bathroom's walls. "I always said he'd look so handsome with short hair, and  everyone  agreed with me, but no! He just would  not  get a haircut." I gestured wildly, my large hands moving rapidly through the air. It was weird, seeing my gestures on my boyfriend's body. This was much more comfortable, however. The first few days after the switch I felt so wrong and uncomfortable in this body. My arms felt unwieldy, my legs felt like stilts, suddenly everything in the world was too small for hands! I felt like I was made of stone, hard, heavy, towering stone.  But that feeling passed. The more I moved, the more I walked in my boyfriend's place, the easier it became to move. Soon after all my mannerisms, all those little gestures and sounds that he  hates  his work-friends seeing, that he says are  so  embarrassing, they all came back. I mean, it's not like I could tu...

Work this week had been an absolute beast. Deadline after deadline had to be met, meaning I worked overtime almost every day since Monday, but it was finally over. Last thing I did at the office before clocking out was requesting some time off, I deserved a long weekend after this hell. Thankfully my boss agreed. I sat in traffic, itching to get home where I could just grab a beer, park myself on the couch, and waste all the time I wanted. I had video games to play and movies to binge, the last bastion between them and me was miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic. We inched forward, slowly but surely, and soon enough we were moving at a decent pace. I'd just breathed a sigh of relief when some asshole in an expensive looking car cut me off as he weaved in and out between lanes. I slammed on my brakes so as to not rear-end the jackass. My last thread of patience snapped and I honked my horn at him repeatedly. I doubt he even heard me through the trap music blasting from his car, and he ...

When I was offered the chance to take the place of someone I knew, I chose Scott Nicholas without a second thought. He was a guy I saw regularly at the gym. Tall, tanned, and toned, he had the perfect body I was sure would give me access to a perfect life. But now that I've become settled in my new identity, I realize maybe Scott's life isn't as charmed as I thought. I have to spend hours at the gym to keep up Scott's physique, and his multiple jobs were boring and draining, but I needed it them pay his bills. So I put up with it and continue on with Scott's life. I'm so busy these days that I don't even get a chance to really enjoy my body. The most I have time for is a quickie in the shower after I get home from the gym.