Zoe braced herself as the light faded. Another jump... another chance to sprint for all she was worth toward the magic shop with the hope she could get there in time for Rachel to cast her binding spell and stop these endless jumps. And, most likely, another disappointment as she was snatched away into another life before she could reach Rachel. She had lost count of how many times she'd attempted to get to the magic shop and failed... at this point, she wasn't sure she would ever make it. It seemed hopeless. Unless she jumped into someone who was in the shop itself, she wasn't sure how she was ever going to make it.
This time she found herself facing an open locker. Looking down at herself, Zoe saw that she was topless, wearing nothing but a pair of stiletto heels and a miniskirt that barely covered everything it needed to cover to be considered clothing. There was a black halter top in her hands.
"Ugh, these clothes are terrible," said a woman to Zoe's left. "I feel like I might as well be back in the stripper outfit."
Another locker a couple of feet away slammed, and Zoe saw a very curvy young blonde woman, about twenty years old, dressed in a red tube top and incredibly short shorts. The woman frowned at her clothing, then looked up at Zoe. "Oh well... at least I can go outside now. I really need to get home. I talked to my son a while ago, right before you jumped in, and he... hey, are you okay?"
Zoe looked at the halter top in her hands, then pulled it on and looked around. She appeared to be in some sort of dressing room; there was a row of lockers next to hers and several mirrored tables around the room. A heavy red curtain hung along one wall, and provocative posters of naked women hung prominently on the other walls. Peering into the mirror, Zoe saw the reflection of an African American woman with breasts even larger than those of the blonde woman; she was very nearly bursting out of the halter top and skirt she was wearing.
Putting together all the information she had, Zoe realized that she must have jumped into a stripper in the backstage area of a strip club. Zoe's town was a nice town, and the people here were by and large a pretty conservative bunch; there weren't a lot of strip clubs here. In fact, the only one Zoe had ever seen was right next to...
Oh.
Oh.
Slamming the locker in front of her shut, Zoe turned and sprinted toward the door. The other woman in the room shouted after her, "Hey, where are you going? You forgot to get your--"
But Zoe didn't hear the rest. She was already out the door, which opened onto a narrow alley. Looking around for a moment to get her bearings, Zoe turned and ran toward the street as fast as she could in the ridiculous shoes she was wearing. She thought for a moment about taking them off, but no... there was no time for that.
Halfway down the alley, Zoe's foot caught on something soft and cold, and she found herself tumbling to the ground. Her body hit the pavement hard, and her arms and knees scraped painfully against the ground. Looking back, Zoe tried to see what had tripped her up, but she couldn't see anything. It had felt like a heavy sack, or even like an unconscious body, but there was nothing there... the alley was empty. Could it have been an animal that had run away, perhaps?
No time to dwell on it. Ignoring the pain in her elbows and knees, Zoe pushed herself unsteadily to her feet and started running again. At last she reached the sidewalk and turned left, where at last, hanging proudly on the wall of the building next to her, she saw what she had been hoping for so long to see: the sign for Rachel Harris's magic shop.
Throwing open the door, Zoe burst into the room. Sitting around the table at the back of the shop, looking up at her in surprise, Zoe saw the woman Rachel had jumped into, as well as a teenage girl a couple of years older than her, wearing a dress Zoe recognized as Athena's. The girl who must have been Athena began to open her mouth, but before she could speak, Rachel cried, "Zoe!" and leapt up from her chair.
"Zoe," Rachel said as she and Zoe met in the middle of the store, "you finally made it. I found the spell, though I don't think it's going to work quite the way we--"
"Don't explain," Zoe said impatiently. "Just cast it, quick, before I jump out again."
Rachel nodded and opened the book she had in her hand. Placing her hand around Zoe's wrist, Rachel chanted a few words in a language Zoe couldn't place. Then she traced a circle around Zoe's wrist and spoke a few more words. Suddenly Zoe's and Rachel's hands began to glow with a pale yellow illumination. The light lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough to tell Zoe that the spell had done something, at least.
"Is that it?" Zoe asked.
"That's it," Rachel said. "I couldn't find a spell that would bind you to your physical aura, unfortunately; the only spells that are designed to interact with physical auras are glamour spells. I was able to find a spell to bind you to me, though."
"What does that mean?" Zoe said.
"It's an element that's often used in summoning spells," Rachel said. "Essentially, for the next twenty-four hours, you're my familiar; you're bound to my physical presence. The spell makes it so you can't be more than a few feet away from me. Usually it's used to keep familiars from running away from their masters, but in your case I think it will keep you from jumping away from me It's not a perfect solution, but I think it should work for ou--"
Zoe's stomach sank as Rachel faded from view, only to be replaced by a different sight. But then Zoe's eyes went wide as she realized where she was. She hadn't jumped somewhere else entirely; she was still in the magic shop. Now, however, she was sitting at the table in the back of the store. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was wearing Athena's dress.
"Athena?" Rachel said as she looked in surprise at the person in front of her. Zoe saw that it was the African-American woman she had seen in the mirror, now looking very startled. Turning, Rachel spotted Zoe. "Zoe... oh my."
Zoe stood and walked over to her friends. The African-American woman, who must have been Athena, said, "This is weird."
"Very weird," Zoe said.
"Agreed," Rachel said, frowning. "This isn't quite what I'd expected... but I suppose it will work. It looks like you're still going to jump... you're just going to jump into someone who's standing near me."
"So what does that mean?" Athena said.
"It means," Rachel said, "that you girls are going to keep jumping into one another until someone else comes into the store."
Zoe and Athena looked at each other with raised eyebrows. "Great," Athena said with a frown.
"At least we're bound together, though, Zoe," Rachel said. "That means that when we find Scarlet... if we find Scarlet... we can cast your spell and finally stop these swaps."
"Yeah," Zoe said, rubbing her neck. "So. Where do we find Scarlet?"
