I was halfway down the stairs on the way to the kitchen before I realized Karyn was no longer right behind me, and it was another few moments before I realized why. I had been completely wrong.
I rushed up the stairs and reached out to turn the doorknob of the door to my room only to find it locked.
“Karyn, don’t wish for anything!” I cried as desperately through the closed door as I could without raising my voice enough for my Jon-family to hear there was an incident happening. I didn’t know if my desperation carried through the door. With my increased strength, I wondered if I could tear the door off its hinges. No, I wasn’t that strong. I might be able to twist the doorknob hard enough to ruin its internal mechanism but I didn’t think I would actually be then able to open the door, it would just be stuck closed.
“I’m sorry Jon, or whatever part of you is Jon, but you’ll thank me soon enough.” Karyn quietly said back through the door.
“Can’t we talk about this?” I pled.
“I wish...” Karyn began.
“Karyn please, no,” I said more desperately and almost in a sob, a tear rolling down my left cheek, “at least only do what you’re going to do with a time limit! If you’re about to separate me, what if we don’t want to be separated even after we are but we can’t undo it!”
“Jon, the real Jon, wouldn’t want that, you viper.”
For a moment a twinge of panic hit me like an electric shock as I thought she had just wished “I wish Jon, the real Jon, wouldn’t want that, you viper,” but after a few seconds, I realized that she must have put down the stone in between, before saying the second part. Or she only said “I wish” in the first place to scare me and hadn’t been holding it at all.
“I wish,” I heard from through the door, “that now Jon understands how Sarah feels, they would be separated back out into two separate people in two separate bodies.”
I desperately wondered if that was reversible. I didn’t really know. It seemed that when phrased in the past tense “I wish X was Y”, that history would be changed to not only make Y but to retcon X to have always been Y, but is it really irreversible if the wish was “I wish X would become Y”? Wouldn’t it not actually be a contradiction for the X now Y be then wished back into being X again?
But I didn’t have any longer to wonder about it, as my vision faded to searing white and my consciousness was pried apart.
Jon and Sarah were left looking at each other in surprise. For a moment of confusion, they weren’t even sure of which one they were. Because it didn’t help that Sarah saw another Sarah in front of her, leaving her to wonder if they were separated but with their bodies switched, while Jon actually was too busy trying to recount her own life and memories and even figure out whether she was Jon or Sarah to begin with, before realizing she was in fact Jon and realizing both of them were in a Sarah McMillan body and were now essentially identical twin sisters. Karyn was in for a surprise when she saw them!
Both of them were silent as they assessed the situation. They didn’t want to say anything unnecessary and compel Karyn to make a second thoughtless wish, especially if they both spoke at the same time and Karyn heard two simultaneous Sarah voices.
“Say something!” Karyn demanded.
Jon and Sarah helplessly looked at each other, undecided on who should say what. Jon pointed at Sarah silently and nodded.
“Karyn, please, put down the rock and don’t wish for anything more, can we talk about this like grown-ups?” Sarah asked.
“I only want to speak to Jon,” Karyn said.
Jon and Sarah looked at each other in exasperation and panic. Neither one of them was equipped to speak in Jon’s voice.
“Karyn, this is Jon,” Jon whispered loud enough to be heard through the door. Of course with a whisper, the actual voice of the vocal chords couldn’t be heard. “I think we’re still in agreement, we liked being like that, but I don’t know if, the way you stated the wish...”
The doorknob rattled as Karyn was obviously unlocking and opening it from the other side. She wasn’t going to play this game. At this point Jon and Sarah didn’t know what game they were even playing. The door swung open, and Karyn stood aghast in front of two equally speechless side-by-side Sarahs.
“We’re still...” Jon began, unable to figure out how to proceed with that sentence. Not that the situation needed much further explanation now that Karyn could see them both.
“Are both of you Sarah, is one of you Jon, or are both of you Jon-Sarahs?” Karyn simply asked. It was a reasonable question. The way she had made the wish, it really could have just separated them into two Jon-Sarahs each with the complete library of both.
“I’m Sarah,” Sarah said, “and I’m Jon,” Jon said. “I think, because she, still wished, I would know how she feels...”
“I wish,” Karyn began.
“No, Karyn, no more thoughtless wishes, doesn’t what we want matter at all?” Jon said back.
“Can I, how can I...” Karyn began, and then took a few steps back, facing toward the pair at all times, unwilling to take her eyes off of them for a moment, before putting the stone down on the bed, and pulling her hand back from it a few inches. “Don’t get any closer, unless you want to risk that I can’t grab it in time and do something.” It was a questionable prospect, what wish was she threatening to make that fast that would temporarily incapacitate them both but not do something really regrettable. Jon and Sarah both expected she wouldn’t want to hurt the real Jon but would probably send Sarah straight into the pits of hell as part of a quick wish, but what would even do the job and could Karyn come up with one? “I don’t want to finish that sentence in a bad way while holding it, after saying I wish after all. But, how can I, trust you. Either one of you. I could wish you couldn’t lie, for a while?”
“Karyn, please, don’t take anything more away from us, do you have any idea what you just...” Sarah began.
“No Sarah,” Karyn said with poison, “if you’re Sarah, you are the one that took away from others.”
Jon took a few steps forward, about 1/3 of the distance to Karyn, and Karyn quickly grabbed the stone and said “I wish...” Jon stopped in her tracks, indecisive. “that Jon was back in his original male body.”
Jon looked back helplessly at Sarah as the other 2 of them were compelled to look down and away from the general direction of the stone.
Silent shock permeated through all 3 of them. Because now there were two Jons. Sarah looked down at his now male body, as still no words came out.
“I think,” the real Jon began, “that because I’m constrained to ‘know how Sarah feels’, that the only way to return me to my original male body...”
“Was for me to be in your body, and then you would know how I feel, because I would be feeling in your male body...” Sarah finished.
“Well all’s well that ends well then,” Karyn said with vitriol. “You could turn into a giant bug for all I care.”
“Karyn,” Jon began, not sure how to deal with Karyn being like this. “Don’t forget, anything you do to her, will also happen to me. But, you’re wrong, she’s not, really, that, bad...”
“Yes she is! And you should know that better than anyone now! And this is the perfect opportunity to get revenge!” Karyn said. “How can you not be on my side with that. What do you have, separation anxiety slash Stockholm syndrome? Look what this selfish bitch did to you. She’s a selfish bitch with every cell of her body. Or should I say, his body, ha ha, what do you think of that Sarah, you’re going to be a man for the rest of your life! But you’ll always be a selfish narcissistic bitch no matter what happens to your body. Even the wish that backfired to make this situation in the first place was selfish. Just think about it. She didn’t care how you felt. I wish you would understand how I feel. Ha!”
It was then that Karyn knew that she had just really fucked up. During the course of that tirade, she had forgotten she was still holding the stone. She had only time to gasp in regret as her existence was consumed by blinding white light.
When it was over, there was just Sarah in the doorway, and me. Both of us with bodies appearing to be Jon’s original body, both of us biologically male, but with one perverse difference. I, JonKaryn, had long blonde hair and big female breasts.
“Fuck me,” I said, reeling in self-loathing.
“Yeah, fuck you,” Sarah agreed.
