Karyn looked out at the collection of vehicles parked in front of house, and at the people who were stepping out of them. Most of the people emerging from the police cars looked like they belonged in them; they were men and women--mostly men--dressed in the standard uniforms that were issued to all members of the city's police force. There were a couple of wild cards, though. A teenage girl. A very young boy, no more than five years old, who had a shiny badge attached to the front of his Mickey Mouse t-shirt. A woman who appeared to be so frail and old that Karyn was surprised she could even muster the strength to stand and walk, though the woman moved with the vitality of someone a quarter of her age. That woman's gaunt body seemed to vanish within her police uniform. All in all there were around twenty-five police officers, and they began spreading out to form a circle around the house. There were four people in black suits--three men and a woman--and they were speaking together quietly.
From down the street Karyn saw a limousine approaching. It pulled to a stop in front of the house. Three men stepped out from the back; two of them appeard to be bodyguards in suits that resembled those of the government agents, but Karyn recognized the third. This was Mayor Dickinson. The mayor and his men met with the government agents in the front yard, and the small group argued heatedly for a few minutes. At one point their voices grew loud and angry enough that Karyn could hear their voices from here, though the words were still a bit muffled; the only words she could make out for sure were "...can't let you do this, mister mayor. It's too...". At last they seemed to settle their argument, and three of the seven of them--the mayor, one of his bodyguards, and the female agent--began walking to the house. The other bodyguard drew a handgun and remained where he was, while one of the remaining agents took out a cell phone and the other two began walking in opposite directions around the circle of police, speaking to them as they went.
"Jon," Karyn whispered nervously. "This is serious."
"I know, I know," Jon said, rubbing her eyes with her fingers.
"What are we going to do."
"I don't know," Jon said, shaking her head "Maybe we just have to tel the truth."
Karyn frowned. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."
The doorbell rang. Karyn and Jon looked at each other uneasily. Then Jon sighed and left the room, heading in the direction of the stairs. Karyn reluctantly followed.
By the time they'd reached the living room, the person who looked like Jon--what was his name? Meagan?--was opening the door, revealing the mayor, the bodyguard, and the agent on the other side.
"Good afternoon, young man," the mayor said. "Or, um... whoever you are. My name is Richard Dickinsin; I'm the mayor. May I come inside?"
"Come in," Jon said. Karyn frowned at her friend; she wasn't sure Jon was really thinking this through. Maybe she'd just watched too many TV shows, but she'd always had a bad feeling about big government organizations like the CIA and the FBI. If they were even half as scary as they were in the movies, Karyn was worried about what they would do to Jon if they found out about her wishing stone and her poorly-thought-out wish.
The three who'd been gathered on the doorstep came inside, and Meagan shut the door behind them. The mayor looked at the various people in the room; besides Jon, Meagan, and herself, Biff and Janelle were in the living room. The girl with Karyn's body, however, appeared to be missing; Karyn wasn't sure she was comfortable with her body running around on its own, but she had bigger things to worry about at the moment.
"I'm sure you're all aware by now of the events that are occuring in our fair city," the mayor went on. "People all over town are switching lives with each other at an alarming rate. My office has been working with the federal governement and the police to determine the perameters of this event. We haven't been able to determine much, but we do know that the effects of the body switching are strictly local, confined to a circle about six miles in radius with its center near the geographic center of town. The federal government has done some calculations, and they've found that the center of that circle coincides precisely with this house." The mayor looked gravely from face to face. "They believe this means that, whatever is causing these switches, it originated right here."
"Here?" Janelle said, his eyes wide.
"Here," the mayor said. He looked again at each of them. "Do any of you know anything about this?"
No one spoke. Everyone in the house looked at everyone else, their eyes roving back and forth. Karyn's attention, fell solely on Jon, who appeared to be deeply conflicted.
The mayor turned to the government agent. "Agent?" he said.
The woman handed the mayor the papers she'd been holding in her hands. The mayor looked the papes over for a moment; then he looked up. "Is there a Jonathan Madison here?"
Karyn's heart skipped. Jon, as startled as Karyn was, hesitated a moment; then she stepped forward and began to speak. "I'm Jon Madi--"
Karyn snapped. She wasn't going to let this happen to her friend. Without much forethought, she leapt forward suddenly and rammed her body into the bodies of the agent and the bodyguard, who fell back against the door with a loud thump.
"Karyn?" Jon shouted, her voice shrill and strained. "What the hell are you doing?"
Karyn looked at the two people lying beneath her. The bodyguard gaped at her and shook his head, and muttered, "Where am I? Who are you?" The agent, however--though she was surpriased, naturally--retained her composure. Rising to her feet and pulling a gun fron its holster, the woman said, "Bad move, kid." Karyn realized her miscalculation instantly. This woman must have already been switched.
"Jon," Karyn said weakly, "I think we should run."
Upstairs, Zoe continued the incantation she had begun a few moments before. She knew this was risky, but for the moment it was probably her only shot at stabilizing the situation.
She had been unable to contact any of the members of her coven. Athena, at least, had apparently swapped, into goddess-known-who. The others... she didn't know yet. Clearly the potion to stop all this madness was going to have to wait while she searched the town for her friends. With more people switching every minute, though, Zoe wasn't sure she had that kind of time. So, as a temporary measure, she had prepared a spell that would suspend the magic that was directng the swaps for a couple of hours. It wouldn't stop the swaps permanently, but it would halt them long enough for her to track down her coven. The spell was a highly unstable one, however, and if it wasn't done properly, it might actually make the situation worse, though she couldn't predict what effects it would have in that cae. Zoe needed to concentrate.
Suddenly, though, as she was speaking the last few words, Zoe heard a gunshot somewhere in the house. Startled, she flinched, and the crystal in her hand slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor, where it shattered into innumerable pieces. Zoe stared at it in horror.
Then the room vanished in a flash of light.
