“Ah, what a great night!” Melin thought to herself as she exited the cinema, watching the fog from her breath glow in the ochre street lights. After all the craziness of the holidays (as well as her life in general), Melin was glad to have a quiet evening all to herself. It was like a one woman date; she had a nice dinner at her favorite restaurant and then went to see a movie she was waiting weeks to see. Walking home in the crisp January air, she enjoyed the solitude and quiet of the night, absent mindedly noting which houses still had their Christmas decorations up and which did not.

Now in terms of appearance, Melin was a chunky black redhead, bundled up in a puffy pink coat, which clashed horribly with her bright orange scarf, olive green hat and gloves, and grey sweat pants. But given how often her clothes ended up lost or destroyed, she had to take what she could get. Sure, her family was rich and could afford better clothes for her, but she hated relying on them to get what she could earn for herself. Still, her self-imposed budget was running a bit tight this month; her clumsiness had caused a lot of property damage to her home and several public places, and the date she just took herself on didn’t help. Reluctantly, Melin pulled out her wallet to assess the damage.

“For me, you shouldn’t have! And a fine Merry Christmas to you too!” came a voice from behind. In a moment, Mel’s wallet was gone and a tan woman with short black hair and a thin grey hoodie was standing in front of her, holding it!
“Hey! Give that back!” Melin shouted.
“Not happening, money bags!” The girl taunted, “If you want it back, you’ll have to take it from me! And Stella’s no slouch on the track.”

When Stella ran off, her sneakers crunching the shallow snow, Melin chased after her without considering that it may not have been a good idea to do so. It was a closer race than Stella had anticipated; Melin was a lot faster than she looked due to how many times she had to run away from danger, but the thief kept pace and ducked into an abandoned theatre down the road. Melin ran in after her, hoping not to lose her quarry in the unfamiliar location. For a brief moment however, Melin was distracted by the lobby she found herself in; there were carvings and statues decorating the place, from the stair railing looking like twisted ivy to the ivory unicorns that danced atop the molding. Everything was pale from age and dust, but the sight was breathtaking nonetheless.
Oh, right! The thief!

Melin had lost track of her, but decided to look for her anyway. She looked in the bathrooms. She looked in the ticket booth. She looked in the basement. She looked in the bathroom again.
“I’m up here you dumbass! Called a voice from up the stairs. Following the voice, Melin essentially played Marco Polo until she saw the thief in the stage left box seat. Stella was looking rather frustrated and held out Mel’s wallet.
“No money in there! Just some debit cards (which I took), a parking ticket, and an unwrapped condom. Why do you even have a-“
“It’s not what you think! I just don’t like touching doorbells!” Melin blurted out. “Now give me my wallet!”
“Sure. It’s yours.” Stella said with a grin.

Never one to think much, Melin stepped forward to take what was hers, only to fall through the balcony floor! She bounced off a net beneath the balcony, hit a ramp which forced her onto a chute and you probably get the idea by now. Melin was dizzy and confused by her disorienting Rube Goldberg ride and when it all came to a stop, she hadn’t even noticed she was up side down until Stella walked over to her carrying a filthy backpack. Looking around, Mel noticed that she was buck naked but unable to cover herself up as her ankles and wrists were tied to an ornate wooden support beam! At least hanging upside down by her ankles made her back feel great. But the rusty gears were starting to turn in Mel’s head; this was way too elaborate for a simple street robbery. This was planned and that made her really worry for her safety.

“Just a stupid rich girl with more money than brains.” Stella muttered half to Mel and half to herself, “Never had to be homeless or work a day in her life.”
“Hey, I work a lot! In fact, I’m constantly getting new jobs!” Melin yelled, only to immediately regret it: that bag could have a gun or a knife in it.
“But you never had to! You chose to!” Stella snapped, pulling out what she was looking for: a ring gag, which she affixed in Mel’s mouth and buckled to a belt that she wrapped around the pillar, keeping her head in place and her mouth stuck wide open. Helplessly, Melin then watched as Stella pulled out an electric razor and shaved Melin bald, even shaving her eyebrows just to spite her. Melin tried to protest, but her words were unintelligible.

After that was done, Stella did something peculiar: she took off her own clothes (it turned out she wasn’t wearing anything underneath those jeans and hoodie) and, pulling Mel’s clothes out of the backpack, changed into them. Melin was surprised how much they looked alike from the neck down when Stella wore those clothes. Somehow, the bagginess of the clothes made Stella almost look like she had a body like Melin. Then, a mesh cap was pulled out and the thief began attaching the shaved hair to it with surprising skill. When this was done, and Stella had applied some make up to further darken her skin, she put the wig on, and, shockingly, she looked like Melin! Not exactly, but close enough. Almost like a Melin stunt double: close enough at a distance.

“Do you get what’s happening now?” Stella asked, but Melin couldn’t respond, only involuntarily drool up her own nose. “I’m taking everything from you. Your money, your home, even your identity! I’ll be in the lap of luxury while you can hang around here! Oh, and to make sure you don’t follow me, I’m taking my old clothes with me. I’ll remind you that it’s January, so you might not want to go outside. Well, I’ve got to go. This is ‘Melin’ signing out.”

The thief kissed one cheek, pinched another, slapped Mel’s rear and left to claim her new life. Melin struggled to get loose, but couldn’t. And as the imposter left, the involuntary drool got into Mel’s eyes, so she could no longer watch her identity walking out the door.