As I stepped inside, I saw that the T.V. was still on, but Jill was passed out on the couch. I saw a bottle of whiskey on the table. I picked up the bottle, took a quick gulp, hoping it would help to calm my mind a little, and put it back in the cupboard. If I just slept on it, I knew I'd find a solution.
I had to. I owed it to them.
Between Rachel and myself, we'd come up with something. I made my way into my room, shut the door and climbed into bed. I hadn't really realized how tired I was until that moment, and I didn't even bother getting undressed. Within minutes I was asleep
Jon?
Jon?
I opened my eyes slowly, finding it extremely difficult to believe that it was already morning. The night couldn't have passed that quickly. Stifling a yawn, I sat up in the bed and took note of my surroundings. There was something not quite right about my room, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Oh well, I thought. I can worry about that later. Right now, I've gotta get ready so I can meet Rachel! I slowly shifted so I was sitting with my legs hanging over the edge of my bed.
*My bed * Something was wrong with this whole set up and I still wasn't sure what it was. When I looked around it seemed like everything was floating on the periphery of my vision. I couldn't quite focus on anything. I started to wonder if something had happened with the rock. What? I thought with a sarcastic harrumph, I wished myself bad vision? Somehow that just didn't seem all that likely. Something was off and it was starting to give me the willies.
Setting my feet on the warm carpet, I walked over to the mirror on my wall. When I looked into it, the entire world came back into focus. Except it wasn't my world. It hadn't been my world for the last two days. I realized that I was standing in the bedroom I'd had at my parents' house, before I'd made the wish to live with Jill. Everything was there, everything that had labeled me as a hopeless geek. Even the hopeless geek himself had returned, I realized staring at my own reflection in the mirror.
I was Jon again. I looked down at my body to confirm this, and it was true. I was standing there topless and my breasts were gone. I had the slightly out of shape chest of a teenage boy. There was even the slightest hint of hair growing on it. Below that, I could see the normal morning bulge in my boxers. Everything was back. Everything was the way it had been before.
"What's going on?" I asked, a little surprised to hear my old voice again. I'd gotten so used to Natalie's softer voice that I'd all but forgotten what I'd sounded like.
*I * I realized then and there that I was definitely Jon in every sense of the word. I could remember my life as the Natalie/Jon hybrid, but those opinions and personality traits completely failed to register as my own. It was almost as though I remembered something that had been vividly described to me.
I looked over at the clock, as if it really mattered what time it was. If I was back If the wish had been reversed Karyn?
I threw a pair of jeans on. I didn't bother with a shirt because I obviously had nothing to hide anymore. It took a moment to readjust my balance, but before long I was out the door. As I made my way down the hallway, I stopped outside one of the doors. I heard some strange chanting coming from behind it. I cracked it just a little and peeked inside.
I saw Zoe, my younger sister sitting cross legged on the floor in the center of her room. She was dressed in her typical black Goth attire, and didn't seem to notice me watching her. I was mesmerized for a moment. I didn't recognize the words that she was saying but they had an almost melodic quality to them. I also noticed all of the candles that she had burning, and a few small crystals that were arranged in front of her. Then I heard a growl.
I looked down and saw Violet's nose poking through the crack. The Husky didn't look happy to see me, and I have to confess that I wasn't very happy about the way she was barring her teeth. They looked awfully sharp. This seemed to grab the younger teen's attention, and she looked at me. A thin smile crossed her lips, but it was mirthless to the extreme. She tilted her head out of curiosity, "Violet, COME!" She didn't shout it, but the firmness her words engendered fully justified both the capital letters and the exclamation mark.
The animal took one last look at me, dutifully sniffing my crotch before she ran back to Zoe. "SIT!" Violet obeyed, and without saying so much as a word to me, Zoe returned to her chanting. With one quick motion of her hand, the door was slammed shut, and I was exiled back to the hallway.
I didn't know exactly what was going on, but I knew I had to continue on. I made my way slowly down the stairs. The entire environment around me seemed to take on a surreal quality as I stepped into the kitchen. Mom was there and it looked like she was making breakfast. She turned and looked at me. "You should really get dressed," she told me. "You know Karyn's gonna be here any minute."
As if to punctuate her point, we heard the doorbell ring.
Karyn? She's alive? Maybe I had fixed things. I still didn't understand what was going on with Zoe and Violet, but maybe I'd made some kind of wish. *Maybe I had to mess up my memory for it to work * I did whatever I could to justify the unlikely explanation to myself. I so desperately wanted it to be true.
The door opened and Karyn stepped inside. She was wearing that same green jumper she'd been wearing when we'd met up after our respective vacations. In fact *Her hair Her breasts * Karyn Black looked exactly the same as she had before we'd made the wish. I stood there mouth agape.
"Something wrong Jon-Boy?" she said as my mother handed her a pop tart.
I just shook my head. "It's just " I started to look at her a little closer, and I noticed something that totally put me off my breakfast. There was a massive wound where her jaw connected to her neck. *The same place she'd pointed the gun when * My pulse started to race, and it felt like the world were closing in on me. I could only stare as Karyn dropped her pop tart. When she bent down to pick it up I saw the top of her head, and I could see the exit wound, the stringy hair matted down with her own dried blood
She looked up, and her concern was evident. "You okay Jonny? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
I couldn't say anything. I turned and ran back up to my room as quickly as I could. I turned, shut the door and locked it. My back against the door, I slid down until I was sitting up against it with my knees pulled up against my chest. I was finding it difficult to breath, and I could feel my heart racing.
"What did I do?" I whispered.
"You made a wish," a voice replied. I looked up, expecting to see Malcolm and was instead met by the gaze of my grandfather. He was sitting right there on the edge of my bed looking down at me
