On the other end of the line.
“Not long indeed one time sister.” The person who had been speaking to Dalia said to the empty room. All Carly ever did was waste her time as a soft body. She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she did not notice that one of her friends had been replaced by one of the unchanging. She thought.
It seemed to them that the person she had replaced obviously had not meant as much to Carly as she had once said that they had otherwise she would have noticed. She knew that the Rite of Exchange had helped but they still thought that Carly might have noticed something. Thanks to their help Dalia would soon join her in the world of the soft bodies leaving Carly behind in the world of the unchanging.
Back in the store...
“How?” was going round in Carly’s head, she was a soft body, not Dalia so how had her hair come off of her now bald head so easily. Her now bald shiny head she thought as she caught a glimpse of herself in a nearby mirror.
“What is wrong sister? I do not understand why you are so upset about your wig being removed. I do not have a wig on my head, and I am okay. ” Victoria said trying to calm down her new sister.
“That was not a wig it was my hair. It was part of me. It was as much part of me as my arm or leg is.” Carly tried to explain to Victoria but the mannequin standing in front of her could not understand what she meant
“I am sure we can get you another wig in the same color if you wish,” Victoria replied still not quite understanding what Carly meant.
Over in the darkened corner
Look at her she has no idea that she still has her hair hiding under the piece of plastic on her head Dalia thought. She wondered what these new words were that were forming in her head. Before the challenges had begun she had never known them. Hair, Plastic, the more she looked at Carly the more words formed. Was this part of the Rite of Exchange that her former sister had told her about? Her former sister had told of the rite one time when the orange light had gone away for… What was that word she could almost see it but couldn’t quite reach it.
Her former sister was right to keep Carly distracted enough and she wouldn’t notice that she was losing parts of herself to the rite. The sisterhood hadn’t noticed yet. The more challenges she went through the more she would gain from the former Human until she would take her place in the world of humans.
“Sisters It is time for the next challenge,” Celeste announced from the center of the store.
Carly looked towards Dalia trying to figure out why one of the unchanging would want to leave the sisterhood which seemed to be very welcoming to her to take her place with the soft bodies. That was if such a thing was possible anyway. She had friends among the soft bodies who would come looking for her she knew that they would. They were probably already looking for her at the moment. If only she hadn’t come up with this silly idea in the first place she wouldn’t be in this situation at the moment.
