Chapter Eight: A Chosen Guest

CAUTION: This story is based on a COVID conspiracy theory. I do not personally believe in any such theories, but I’m sharing it anyway. The story was written in the early months of the COVID-19 quarantine, and this was the kind of dream I had some nights during that time.

We didn’t realize what the virus was really doing until it was too late.

Reposted for Valentine's Day 2026

Mad scientist John Crevil and his wife swapped bodies with billionaire Jacob Astoria and his wife, but they got found out, and performed a second swap into the bodies of the Astoria’s chauffeur and maid in order to try to escape. How’s it all going to end?

Chapter Seven: Eyes of the World

The broadcast spread faster than fire in dry grass, its signal shimmering with an unplaceable light. For those who watched, a faint scent of moonlit lotus seemed to drift from the screens, and old clocks ticked backward for a breathless instant. The air itself tingled, as if a barrier between worlds had briefly parted—magic leaking into living rooms across the nation.

Mad scientist John Crevil and his wife Betty have pulled off the perfect crime: They used gene-editing technology to make themselves perfect doubles of billionaire Jacob Astoria and his wife Margaret, used the same technology to make the Astorias look like themselves, and left the Astorias knocked out so they are unable to find the nutrition needed to survive the changes. Or have they? They were worried when an unknown extra person unexpectedly stepped into the fray.

June - New York - Angel and Maud

Maud’s condo had a view of Manhattan that was supposed to impress, but Angel paced past it without a glance. She was getting big. Not quite fat, but big; about six months pregnant but her abdominal muscles hid most of the changes.

Alex had a terminal Cancer diagnosis and thought she would die before she got to be the girl she always was inside. That all changes when she's in the wrong place at the right time and gets transported to another world and into the body of a girl. So what if she's not human, she's alive and a girl. Now if only she had her sister with her to navigate this new world and her new responsibilities. Wait, she's here too? The passage of their souls between worlds may have doomed the Earth to apocalypse, but Alex and Michelle won't be there to see it and they have enough problems on their hands.
 

Mark and Tyler's birthdays are a day apart, so they've always spent them together. Mark has a crush on Liz, so Tyler suggests a way for him to get a date with her while the two of them spend their days together just like they always have...

Scott Hanes knew it was supposed to be a challenge, but spending the night in a haunted mansion couldn't be too hard, could it?

April - London - Angel

Angel rode her Honda out to the edge of London, where the city turned to flats and then fields, to see the place where Angel had been made—not born but shaped.

The façade of St. Margaret’s Home for Girls was the color of old blood, the paint peeling in strips revealing the bones underneath. The sign out front was warped by sun and rain: “Empowering Girls For a Brighter Tomorrow.”

Late March - New York - Mark Steele’s Penthouse

Mark tried to be helpful. Really.

He knew what posh girls used on their faces though he never really had the money to buy any of it when he was working at the Licorice Elephant. So he bought Angel three types of cleanser, and a Sephora haul large enough to bankrupt a minor country. The first morning, he left a care package on her side of the sink: organic moisturizer, a detangling brush, a perfect lipstick matched to her skin.

Angel found it and said nothing.

February - New York - Angel as Mark

Dinner was already plated when Lena Park arrived. Mark (formerly Angel) wore a black-on-black best, no tie, sleeves rolled, the perfect blend of intimidating and disarming. She wore a silver slip dress, daring by her standards, paired with a blazer that she refused to remove even after two glasses of wine. Mark clocked the nervous micro-glances at his forearms, the way she tucked a stray hair behind her ear when she meant business, the tic of her heel under the table.

Alex had a terminal Cancer diagnosis and thought she would die before she got to be the girl she always was inside. That all changes when she's in the wrong place at the right time and gets transported to another world and into the body of a girl. So what if she's not human, she's alive and a girl. Now if only she had her sister with her to navigate this new world and her new responsibilities. Wait, she's here too? The passage of their souls between worlds may have doomed the Earth to apocalypse, but Alex and Michelle won't be there to see it and they have enough problems on their hands.
 

25th December - London - Angel’s Flat

Mark woke up with his face pressed into a pillow that reeked of supermarket hair dye and someone else’s sweat. For three full seconds, he thought he was hungover in a particularly shitty business hotel. Then he reached for his phone and hit his breasts against the bedside table. That’s when he decided that he was really hungover and just went back to sleep

The next weekend I was back there, and there were a bunch more new garments to sort out, and we did those first. Mom, Grandma, and I were doing it again, though we reversed the sequence so I was measuring Grandma. And it was just like before, we got a variety of different ages, sizes, and looks. A few more women than men. The weird thing was I was finding I enjoyed the times I was a woman more than when I was a man.

Alex had a terminal Cancer diagnosis and thought she would die before she got to be the girl she always was inside. That all changes when she's in the wrong place at the right time and gets transported to another world and into the body of a girl. So what if she's not human, she's alive and a girl. Now if only she had her sister with her to navigate this new world and her new responsibilities. Wait, she's here too? The passage of their souls between worlds may have doomed the Earth to apocalypse, but Alex and Michelle won't be there to see it and they have enough problems on their hands.
 

Ever wonder where all those lost socks go? They're right here!

Alex had a terminal Cancer diagnosis and thought she would die before she got to be the girl she always was inside. That all changes when she's in the wrong place at the right time and gets transported to another world and into the body of a girl. So what if she's not human, she's alive and a girl. Now if only she had her sister with her to navigate this new world and her new responsibilities. Wait, she's here too? The passage of their souls between worlds may have doomed the Earth to apocalypse, but Alex and Michelle won't be there to see it and they have enough problems on their hands.
 

Chapter Three: The Empress and the Stranger

The palace lanterns flickered to life, their gracefully curved, lotus-shaped flames illuminating the night with a warm, ethereal glow. Shadows stretched and danced across the intricate jade pillars of the throne hall, creating a tapestry of light and dark. The air was thick with an electric hum, infused with protective wards that swirled like whispers around them, empowered by the Kitsune Queen’s shimmering foxfire and the primal echoes of the Werewolf Queen’s growls, which resonated like distant thunder.

Alex had a terminal Cancer diagnosis and thought she would die before she got to be the girl she always was inside. That all changes when she's in the wrong place at the right time and gets transported to another world and into the body of a girl. So what if she's not human, she's alive and a girl. Now if only she had her sister with her to navigate this new world and her new responsibilities. Wait, she's here too? The passage of their souls between worlds may have doomed the Earth to apocalypse, but Alex and Michelle won't be there to see it and they have enough problems on their hands.
 

Chapter Two: The Man Who Died

David had never considered himself anything beyond ordinary. At twenty-one, he was tall and lanky, with a physique that leaned more toward fragility than strength. His dark, tousled hair seemed perpetually unruly, offering a rebellious contrast to his careful nature, while his glasses, ever so slightly too big for his face, frequently slipped down his nose, needing constant adjustment.

Immortality can come in many ways, some see it as a blessing, others, a curse. A man lays on his deathbed, welcoming passing on. Then the curse happens.

CAUTION: this is not an overall happy story and may cause triggers.

Alex had a terminal Cancer diagnosis and thought she would die before she got to be the girl she always was inside. That all changes when she's in the wrong place at the right time and gets transported to another world and into the body of a girl. So what if she's not human, she's alive and a girl. Now if only she had her sister with her to navigate this new world and her new responsibilities. Wait, she's here too? The passage of their souls between worlds may have doomed the Earth to apocalypse, but Alex and Michelle won't be there to see it and they have enough problems on their hands.