"-llo? Hello? Earth to Jasmine? Finally returning to the land of the waking sweetie?"
Jason couldn't help but groan in pain. He had a splitting headache. Somebody ran their fingers across his temple, and he tried to swat their hand away. He hit air instead.
"Open your eyes honey. Mom's here. Looks like you had a pretty bad fall just now." Mom explained. It seemed to jog Jason's memory a bit. The sword, Lucy, the swaps...
Jason gasped, sitting up from where he lay. There was what felt like dead weight on top of him, and in spite of his movements, his head didn't move from its spot on his mother's lap.
"Oh god, Lucy!"
He felt his body stir. At the same time, the weight on top of him jerked up. Goosebumps formed on his arms as he felt not one, but two heartbeats speed up, forming an arrythmic orchestra, further fuelling his panic.
"That was so stupid of me!" Jason whined, remembering practically pouncing on Lucy from the top of the stairs, before tumbling to the bottom and hitting his head. He lost consciousness shortly after.
"I'm relieved to hear that from you. I suppose you were lucky you still managed to catch your own head before you hit the wall. Are you hurt anywhere else?"
Jason's vision shifted involuntarily. Without moving his neck, his view of his mother's face was replaced by that of two bodies at the bottom of the stairs, neither of them with a head atop their shoulders.
"Oh crap," cursed Jason underneath his breath. The sword lay right beside the two headless bodies, but the pointed end looked chipped and the dial on its hilt looked broken.
Without his say-so, one of the bodies began checking out its injuries, patting down its arms, elbows, ribs, and other sore spots. He felt goosebumps form as he felt unfamiliar hands move along an unfamiliar body. It dawned on him that the effects of his latest swaps hadn't dissipated after the sword got damaged. Worse yet, Lucy, or her head at least, was nowhere to be found!
"Where's Lucy?" Jason asked mom, as he carefully checked out the body he did have control over. Bruises galore, but no sharp, searing pain reminiscent of a broken bone.
"Lucy?" His mother asked with a smile. "Some new girlfriend you snuck into our home? Or did you hit your head just now?"
Jason wanted to glare at her, but that would prove different if he couldn't move his neck to look directly into his mother's eyes. He held a hand up and tried to gesture at his head from his wonky new perspective. How his head got detached from his body was another question altogether, but it was probably caused by one of the previous swaps him and Lucy had used the lasersword for. Lucy did want to cut her own head off after all.
With his gesture, one of his bodies held its hand out in front, but from his point of view, it was pointing off to the side a bit. In its stead, the other body, the one Jason had no control over, stood up and walked over to him and his mother.
Mrs. McCormick dutifully handed over his head to his second body. It surprised him how gentle this body was with his head. There was no doubt in his mind that this was Lucy still. It had to be!
"Are you going to be alright?" Asked mom.
Jason eyed the alien body with a calculating gaze. When it seemed not to react to his scrutiny, Jason cleared his throat. "I suppose I'm fine mom. I'mma just- head back up to my room for a bit. Trying to figure out what to do with... this."
His mother quirked an eyebrow at him, though Jason didn't see it. "Whatever you say sweetie. Dinner is at six. Let me know if you need something. A part of you still seems... wobbly on their feet, so to speak."
With that, she left the hallway by the stairs, leaving Jason (and Lucy?) by himself to collect his thougts.
