Zoe sat on her bed, unable to move. Not because she couldn't, but because she was so shocked by what happened to her. One moment she was getting ready for school, and the next she was standing in her room looking like Mrs. Wilson, an elderly neighbor that lived across the street. She was even wearing her clothes.
After a few minutes, however, she found enough courage to move. She scooted off her bed and walked to her window. After pulling aside the heavy black curtain, she looked out onto the neighborhood. It seemed that perhaps she wasn't the only one who had changed, as she was seeing a lot of strange things out her window. Like an old man riding around on a tricycle and dog seemingly driving a car and a teenage girl sitting in a baby stroller. It was like everyone's body got swapped around. But what could do something like that? It almost seemed like ... magic. And there was only one way to deal with magic. Zoe had to go see her friend Athena.
But first, she had to get out of these granny clothes. She just didn't feel like herself in them. So, she stripped them off and prepared to put on her own clothes. She looked at herself in the mirror. She had seen Mrs. Wilson plenty of times, but she had never seen her naked. It was quite disturbing.
She put on a fishnet shirt with a black leather corset (this helped stabilize her sagging breasts), a black ripped miniskirt, fishnet stockings, and her usual black knee-high buckled boots with three-inch stacks. She then put on black lipstick and eyeliner, and then to top it off, a spiked collar.
She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. "Much better," she said. It was odd hearing Mrs. Wilson's voice instead of her own. Until the situation was fixed, she'd have to get used to it. She'd also have to get used to being in this body. Even after being in it for only a matter of minutes, she was already feeling aches and pains in places she never had before. Mrs. Wilson was nearly eighty years old. Zoe would have to be careful with her actions. She wasn't as young as she used to be.
At the moment, she couldn't do anything with her hair, but the first chance she got she was going to dye it black. Gray hair just didn't look right with her gothic look.
She grabbed her black leather pull-string bag and left her bedroom. She was about to bound down the stairs like she usually did, but ended up taking it a little slower instead. When she got downstairs, she saw a little girl standing next to a dog, which she didn't recognize.
"Zoe? Is that you?" the girl asked.
"Who are you?" Zoe asked.
"It's me. Your mother."
The dog barked.
"Whose dog is that?" Zoe asked.
"I don't know. But there's something familiar about it."
"I'm going out," Zoe said, walking towards the front door.
"I don't think that's a good idea. Things aren't ... right."
"That's why I'm leaving. I'm going to Athena's house to figure this out."
"Zoe ..."
"Mom, just leave me the fuck alone," Zoe snapped. "I know what I'm doing." Then she left the house.
Her mom stood in the living room, shocked to hear Mrs. Wilson use profanity like that. But, of course, it was really Zoe. And she knew that, but it was too weird to think of her daughter as an old woman, especially one she knew.
