"Okay, no argument here," Karyn offered. "We can fix this though. We can turn you back Jon."
"Oh, about that," the woman said grasping the stone. "There's something you need to know Karyn. I'm not Jon. Not exactly anyway."
"I don't understand," Karyn said softly, and that was true enough. Nothing about this made any kind of sense. She glanced once again toward the unoccupied bed, and then back at the young woman standing in Jon's bathroom, wearing some of his old clothes. "If you're not Jon, then where the hell is he?"
"It's not that simple," the girl said, using her arms to lift her butt up onto the sink so she could sit. "I'm not even sure I understand it myself. I do have his memories, at least to a degree, but I also know that I'm not him. It's "
"You're not making any sense," Karyn whispered. "Are you Jon, or not?"
The potential Jon rolled her eyes. "Short answer, no. I'm somebody else. I have my own personality and motivations. I've been using the stone to try and figure out exactly what's going on, but that's met with kind of mixed results "
"Jon tried that too, or you did, or whatever. We tried that earlier, and the rock wouldn't tell us anything."
"I know," she said. "I remember it, so I tried some other wordings and different questions. I still couldn't learn the full extent of that wish, but I did find a few things out. Jon and I are different people, but we share this body, if that makes any sense."
"Not really," Karyn said, leaning back against the door frame. "That doesn't look like Jon's body to me."
A sigh escaped Jon's feminine lips. "Something happens when we go to sleep. Once whoever is in control goes to sleep, and surrenders that control, the other takes over, and for some reason, the body changes." She paused. "I know, it's strange to me too. It doesn't make sense, and I'm sure there's more to that wish then this, but that's all I've learned so far."
"So, you're not Jon then," Karyn said slowly, feeling like she was finally starting to catch up. This woman was saying some pretty strange things, but why not? Anything was possible with the wishing stone, right? Why couldn't things be happening exactly as this woman was telling her? "But how come this doesn't seem normal to me then?" she finally asked. "I wasn't in earshot when Jon made his wish. Why don't I think this was always the case?"
"I don't know," the sitting woman said, shrugging her shoulders. "That wish was vague enough that maybe the stone itself is deciding who remembers what. Like I said, there are a lot of things I still couldn't get the stone to tell me."
"So, when you go to sleep "
"Jon should take over again, and the body can should transform back into the one you remember."
"There has to be a way to fix this," Karyn said quietly, her mind racing. "Return things to normal." She watched in surprise as the other woman quickly grasped the stone.
"I'd rather not," she said politely, almost too politely. "There's a whole world out there, and even if I can only see it at night, I still wanna see it."
Karyn thought about it for a moment. She could try and take the stone by force, try to fix all of this, but what if she failed to get the stone. There was something a little too distant in the other woman's voice for Karyn, and she couldn't be sure she would be safe if she tried something and failed. Still, this was Jon's life they were talking about.
On the other hand, they could wait until morning, and try and fix this when Jon was back. What was she going to do
