The sign above the next stall read ‘Balloon Race,’ and it was as much of a theme park staple as funnel cake and overpriced merchandise. Eight red seats at in front of eight water guns in front of eight targets (only the center of which was what mattered). “This way, at least one of us will be able to get a prize,” Heather said, smiling at Echo.
As the two girls sat down in front of their respective water gun, Sapphire walked behind the counter, “Okay Ladies and Gentlemen, step right up! There are still some seats available, 3 dollars a play” she said to no-one, before turning to the girls and explaining, “Sorry girls, but it’s park policy to wait a few minutes before starting the game.”
After Heather paid, the two girls relaxed in their seats. After quickly checking her phone (yep, still no bars since she entered the park) Heather started up a conversation, “So Echo… How are classes going?”
“Oh, they’re going pretty fine, but I’m really worried about my finals, my lab project is due on Monday, and we’ve been working on that since December. I’ve also got my biochemistry, dynamic motion, and planetary orbits finals later in the week. What about you?”
“Oh, you know… I’ve got a paper due for my creative writing class in a couple of days…” Heather said, slightly embarrassed at the level of her friend’s academic commitment. Despite being a junior, she had really only decided on her english literature major last semester, so she was still stuck taking a lot of the introductory classes. She had to write a couple of papers for each analyzing a story they had to read (or read the summary off of Quarknotes), which she had left each one until the last minute and banged out each essay off of a coffee-fueled high. She was fully aware that she was probably going to only get C’s in the class, but hey, C’s get degrees.
“Ooh! Creative writing’s always been a class I’ve wanted to take! How’s the teacher?”
“She’s alright, a little strange at times, but she really encourages us to show off our writing ability.”
“That’s awesome. I’ve thought about taking it as an elective, but I’m worried that I wouldn’t be creative enough and it would knock down my GPA.”
“Please, I remember the stories you used to write in elementary school, you could easily write circles around anyone in that class, myself included,” Heather said.
“Ha, *snort* please. Those stories were nothing special,” Echo said offhandedly.
“No seriously. Whenever I think about ‘The Prince’s Sacrifice’ I still tear up a little,”
“Oh please, you’re just being dramatic,” Echo said, failing miserably at trying to hide the wide smile across her face, “besides, I could never really be a writer. My Mom’s dead-set on me either being a doctor or scientist so I can help support the family. Especially after my dad…” Echo trailed off into silence, her smiled fading as well.
Just as Heather was about to say something to try and cheer up her friend, Sapphire got back on the microphone, announcing, “Okay folks, no more entries, please. The race is about to begin!” Sapphire walked down the line of seats, pressing the switch to activate Heather Echo’s water guns. “The rules are simple, blast the center of the target to fill up the balloon, first person’s balloon who pops wins!”
Both girls grabbed their water guns, aiming them as best they could. “Okay, Three, Two, One… Go!” Both girls pressed their triggers, and as expected the streams weren’t even close to actually hitting the center. Thankfully, Heather’s reflexes were quick, so she was able to quickly adjust to the center. As her stream hit the center of the target, the balloon attached to the top of the target began to inflate. As the balloon began to inflate, she could have sworn that it looked exactly like Echo’s face on the balloon-
‘Gah!’ Heather thought, for some reason there was a sudden feeling of the inside of her head was pushing against the outside. Keeping her aim steady, she turned her head to look over at Echo, who had managed to finally get her stream in check, and her balloon was beginning to inflate. Unlike Heather’s balloon (which had Echo’s face and skin tone), Echo’s balloon had Heather’s face and skin tone. Turning slightly further, she freaked out slightly. Echo’s head was swollen in an extremely unnatural way. Her head was practically spherical at this point, her facial features stretching unnaturally. Heather was pretty certain that her head was probably the same way, but she didn’t dare let go of her gun to check. As the pain intensified, Heather closed her eyes, hoping for the pain to end-
*Pop*
The pushing feeling quickly subsided. Heather tentatively opened her eyes to see Sapphire reaching behind the counter for a prize. Turning her head once more, she looked towards Echo to see a horrifying site. Instead, connected to heather’s neck were several strands of what appeared to be stretched out rubber that matched her skin tone. Heather nearly fainted with amazement.
“Here’s your prize, miss! Ooh, let me clean your friend for you,” Sapphire passed a football sized garbage bag to Heather (which was rather heavy), and reached over to Echo, grabbing the strands of rubber attached to Echo’s neck. As she pulled them away, they stretched, before finally giving and breaking off, leaving Echo with a smooth neck stump. Heather caught a glimpse of what looked to be Echo’s mouth as Sapphire threw the strands into the trash.
Ripping the package opened, Heather was shocked to see Echo’s head smiling back at her. Simultaneously, as the packaging came off, Heather also saw herself staring back at her. “Wow,” Heather said (and Echo’s head echoed), closing both sets of eyes.
“Well miss, I hope you enjoy your prize!” Sapphire said.
Heather focused, managing to open only her main head’s eyes. She rushed over to her friend, patting her and saying desparately, “Echo?! Can you hear me?!” from both mouths.
Echo’s body did not respond, however it did stir and move on its own, indicating there was at least some life in the body. Truth be told, without a brain Echo would not be able to think much of anything, but some extremely basic thoughts did run through her ‘mind’ endlessly such as: ‘dark’ ‘where brain?’ and ‘need touch’. Echo’s body began reaching out, finding purchase with Heather’s arm and holding on tightly to it.
Heather, relieved that her friend was at least alive, took the head she was holding under the crook of her arm and tried placing it on Echo’s neck stump. Despite her best efforts, the head would not stick, and she was still receiving sensual information from Echo’s head.
Unknown to Heather, the feeling of Heather’s new head rubbing against Echo’s neck stump was causing strange alien feelings within Echo’s body. As a new being of pure touch, these alien sensation drowned out the other ‘thoughts’ in her ‘mind’, with ‘GOOD!’ “MORE!’. Echo let go of Heather’s arms and began to sensually rub the area of new skin as Heather turned her attention to Sapphire, who was explaining things to her about her new head.
“-you start getting used to have two sets of sensory information in about 15 minutes. If you don’t adjust in a half hour, you should go to our medical tent, where they will try to help you out-“
“Sapphire,” Heather said, this time successfully out of only her own mouth, “Is there a way I can just give my friend back her head?”
“I’m sorry miss, but the it’s our park policy to not allow transfers, only trades of equivalent parts. Also, our medical tent has been instructed to not help anyone who was changed on purpose”
“So, how would I go about getting her a head?”
“W-well… We have a couple of games that could be beaten by someone with a head… maybe,” Sapphire said, listing a couple of options.
Which game should Heather try to help Echo play?
1) Skill Crane
2) Strong’wo'man game
3) Pick a Duck Game