The pain reached its crescendo. Jon screamed, though it wasn’t his voice — it was higher, smaller, strained through a body that wasn’t his own. His vision went white, the agony snapping like a taut wire, and then everything was light.
When the brightness faded, he was no longer on the cold bathroom floor. He was being held. Cradled, actually. Strong arms, warm and familiar, rocking him back and forth against the steady beat of a heart.
Jon blinked up — and saw her.
Karyn.
Her freckled face loomed above him, her ginger hair tickling his forehead as she bent over him, her eyes brimming with love and tenderness. She wasn’t dressed in anything extraordinary — just her usual old sweater, the one she’d worn a thousand times before — but the way she looked at him made his chest ache.
“There, there, sweetheart,” Karyn whispered, her voice trembling with affection. “It’s okay now. Mommy loves you. Mommy’s here.”
Jon froze. Mommy?
He wriggled weakly in her lap, trying to get a better look at himself. His limbs felt shorter, pudgier. His body lighter — so light it felt like he might float away if she let go. And then, lowering his gaze, he saw the truth.
Tiny legs. A rounded belly beneath a childish shirt. And, just above his eyes, a lock of ginger hair, the same shade as Karyn’s. His breath caught.
No... no, this can’t be right.
The realization hit him like a punch. He wasn’t Jon anymore. Not the sixteen-year-old boy he remembered being. He was... smaller. Helpless. A toddler — one of Karyn’s sons. Her three-year-old.
Shit. His adult mind reeled. This is not good. Not good at all.
But as much as panic tried to claw through his thoughts, his new body betrayed him. The little boy he now inhabited carried traces of his own fears, a nightmare that must have woken him before Jon had taken over. The echoes of that fear bubbled up in his chest, raw and overwhelming.
And then Karyn’s arms tightened around him.
She stroked his hair, kissed his forehead, murmuring softly into his ear. “Shhh, it’s okay, baby. Mommy loves you so, so much. You’re safe. No more nightmares.”
Jon’s small body trembled, but against her warmth, he found himself leaning into her without meaning to, his cheek pressing against her chest. The rhythm of her heartbeat, the smell of her sweater, the gentleness in her voice — it all pulled him down, down into a place where thinking wasn’t possible anymore.
I should fight this... I should figure out... But the thoughts dissolved, slipping away into a fog of exhaustion and warmth. His new eyelids fluttered. His tiny fingers clutched weakly at the fabric of her sweater.
“Mommy’s here,” Karyn whispered again, rocking him gently.
And before Jon could make sense of what had happened, before he could even remember what his name used to be, sleep claimed him.
The last thing he felt was her embrace.
The chapter ends in silence.
