You’re coming home from university, Adam, looking forward to spending a long weekend with your friends…

Next moment, you’re waking up in a hotel room, wearing a leather skirt, fishnets and a boob tube. You’re battered and bleeding.

There’s a body lying next to you, and it’s not moving…

You shake the body, trying to wake it up. It’s cold...

With a scream, you fly out of the bed, trip, and fall to the floor. You start sobbing uncontrollably...

With a shaky hand, you phone the hotel receptionist, crying...

The receptionist calls the emergency services. She also calls the police...

 They all turn up within a few minutes.  They check the body, but it’s way too late. Then, they turn it over...

You freeze in shock. Your own face stares sightlessly up at you. It can’t be...!

You spend the next few hours at the police station. You don’t even know who you now are, let alone what happened, so you can’t tell them anything. Finally, they realise that and get someone in to examine you, assuming you have some kind of trauma induced amnesia.

The police soon identify ‘you’; you had a police record for a past incident, with fingerprints on file. They match perfectly to the body...

Enquiries then led them to his new girlfriend, Erica. You are then told by the police that you are Erica...!

You have to just look on in shock, as your own parents are told you are dead. You want to tell them it’s not true, but there’s no way anyone will ever believe you...

It’s even more of a shock when Erica’s mother comes flying in and throws her arms around you...

“Sweetie, are you ok? What’s wrong?”

You don’t reply. You can’t; you’re in a state of shock. You have no idea who the woman hugging you is, you can only assume that she’s Erica’s mother.

The woman turns to one of the detectives.

“Please tell me, what’s wrong with my daughter?”

“We don’t know, we’re waiting for the medical report”, the detective replied. “It looks like she has some kind of amnesia.”

The detectives didn’t say that they thought it might be traumatically induced...

The police take you into an interview room. Firstly, the doctor comes in and checks you over thoroughly, then a couple of detectives sit with you.

“I’m not sure how I can help you”, you say, “I can’t remember anything...”

The police interview you for a bit longer. The interview finishes abruptly, however, as the detectives can see something is wrong. Your face has gone pale, and you are swaying; you then collapse in your chair...

You wake up in hospital.

“I don’t know how to tell you this, on top of everything else”, the doctor says, “but you’ve been sexually assaulted...”

Despite being in the wrong body, you can’t help but start crying...

“Also, looking at your neck, there’s enough bruising to show that the guy with you was trying to strangle you. Your amnesia is probably at least partially due to lack of oxygen from this.”

The circumstantial evidence from the hotel room so far indicated that you had attacked Erica. However, they could find no reason for your ‘death’...

Eventually, they let you go.

Erica’s mother is waiting for you outside; she’s been there all the time.

“Let me take you home, sweetie. Let’s try and put all this behind us, and you can get some rest...”

Still very confused, you let her lead you out to the car park. She helps you into a car. You strap yourself in as she gets in the other side, and you drive off.

Ironically, you drive past your home as you are going back to Erica’s house. You gaze longingly at it out of the window.

Erica’s mother misinterprets your gaze.

“I know”, she says. “You said you loved him very much.”

This comment was even more puzzling. If that was the case, how come you can’t remember Erica at all...?

Finally, you are back at Erica’s home. Erica’s mother, knowing about your amnesia, but hoping that something will jog your memory, shows you around.

“Can you just show me to my room, please?”, you say. “I’m really tired…”

“Of course, sweetie”, she says. “It’s just through here.”

The door opens onto a sea of sparkles and pink…

With a groan, you sit onto the bed. At least that feels comfortable, even though it looks like someone emptied a powder puff onto it. You snuggle down and turn away from the door and ‘your’ mother, not saying anything. Disappointed, hurt, she backs out of the room and closes the door.

You sob quietly into your pillow…

You keep thinking that this is all a dream; you’ll wake up back in your own body, in your own bed. No such luck. Next morning is just more of the same…

You pick up ‘your’ mobile phone and check it. It unlocks to your Face ID, showing you have masses of messages from friends wondering where you are. Facebook notifications have gone crazy…! A lot of them seem to be from a ‘Melanie Wright’. That name rings a bell…

Your hand shaking, you call her…

“Erica? Is that you, girlfriend?”, the voice comes over the phone. “I’ve been worried sick…!”

“Yes, it’s me”,you reply, haltingly.

“Where have you been!”, Melanie cried.  “You say you love me, then you just disappear!”

“What…!”

If Erica had had a girlfriend, what was she doing with you in that hotel room?

Something definitely didn’t feel right…

You agree to meet up with Melanie, and she lets out a squeal of delight.

“Yay! Girl’s night! I’ll swing by and pick you up at eight?”

You agree and hang up.

Erica’s mother, listening from the doorway, smiles. She thinks you need chance to relax…

Melanie arrives at eight. Now her you remember. She used to be your girlfriend from before, when you were male…

She hugs you tightly.

“Come on, girl! Let’s go. I’ve booked a table at the club for eight thirty.”

Still slightly dazed, you let her steer you out the door. After all, you still have feelings for her…

Before you leave for the club, Melanie puts her hand on your leg, in the car, and gently rubs it up and down.

“I’ve really missed you…!”, she says, quietly…

The evening goes really well. The trouble is, slightly drunk and on a high, you get carried away a little, as you have no idea what your tolerance for alcohol is. You pull Melanie to you and kiss her.

However, she doesn’t complain at all. She smiles broadly and then kisses you back.

“I thought you felt that way about me, Adam”, she says.

“What did you call me…?”, you say quietly, with a shaky voice.

“Adam. It was your name, after all. It is you in there, isn’t it?”

“Is all this something to do with you, Melanie?”

“It’s all to do with me, sweetie. I wanted you, but I’d no idea why. After all, I’m gay. I’m only into girls. At the same time, that tart Erica, who I thought was my friend, had talked you into a one-night stand. I swear she was doing it just to piss me off. Still, the joke is on her, now…”

“What did you do to her?”, you cry. “She didn’t hurt anyone…”

“She did! She broke my heart! She stole you from me! After all the time we spent together, as well. She was my best friend, and she betrayed me for you!”

“As you may know”, continues Melanie, “I am an expert in ancient languages and texts. I worked out how to put a person’s ‘spirit’, for want of a better name, into another body using some ancient old-English pagan techniques. I waited until the day of your one-night date, set the exchange going, then sedated my own body just before the ‘switch’ and flipped myself into Erica’s body. I then had an amazing date with you as a man; just as we were falling asleep in bed, I switched bodies with you. I then got your body to strangle Erica enough to knock her out. Once you had passed out, I moved myself back into my own body with a lot of effort.”

“This, however, is where it all went wrong”, she continues, now in tears. “Erica’s spirit was too weak to make a trip of that distance back to your original body. She didn’t have my experience. She dissipated instead… That is why your original body is now dead. There’s nothing in it to run it…”

Melanie’s shoulders slump, and she starts crying.

You weren’t sure what to do. You should hate Melanie for what she did. Not only has she effectively turned you into a girl, but she has also ‘killed’ the original occupant of your body, as well as let your own body die.

There are two problems; one, you can’t prove any of this (and who’d believe you anyway) and two, you are crazy enough to still love her…

You turn away, indecisive and confused. Your thoughts are interrupted by a small arm wrapping itself around your waist…

“Don’t leave me now, love, please! I need you! I love you! I did all this to be with you!”

You turn around.

Melanie is on her knees, crying. You can’t help it. You throw your arms around her, as she bawls her eyes out on your shoulder…

You get a phone call from the police the next day. They’re closing the case.

It turns out that the fact that Erica’s spirit not getting back to your body caused your body to have a seizure, as nothing was controlling it anymore (the police didn’t know that; they have put it down to a brain aneurysm). The doctors have confirmed that the spasm through your body would easily cause your hands to clench, probably causing the bruising around Erica’s neck.

All neat and tidy.

Only problem is that you are still an amnesiac Erica. Then again, with Melanie’s support and affection, that’s not really so bad…