Darkness... And then less darkness? Well that didn’t last long. My surroundings come into view again, I’m still in a darkened room but what I see shocks me more than anything ever has before. A chill runs down my spine as I stare wide eyed at.. myself? What is going on?! I realize the burglar must still be here and quickly look around, thankfully there’s no one. When I look down I see burly hands holding a bloody knife. What? In my shock the knife drops. I’m.. I was.. the one holding the knife? I get up and run to where I know a mirror is located, I nearly trip, my body feels strange, big and uncomfortable. Once I reach the mirror my worst speculation seems to be true. I’m in the burglars’ body or am I the burglar, no, how is this even possible?!

My heart is beating rapidly. In the next moment I hear someone entering the front door. “Carrie? Why are the lights off? Oh! I’m so sorry! I forgot to buy electricity again, my bad. You know that you left the front door open?” Oh, good it’s just Julia, I let out a sigh. Julia rounds the corner, she seems shorter than usual? Her eyes widen and she lets out a bloodcurdling scream, turns and runs. Right! I’m look like the burglar now. “Julia, wait! It’s me! Carrie! Caroline!” My voice sounds deep and raspy and kind of tickles my throat. She won’t believe me, I mean, I don’t believe it myself. I sit down on a chair by the front door. What should I even do? I’m in a murderers’ body, a man’s body. Isn’t life supposed to be sensical? Wait, I don’t think sensical is a real word... never mind that. I sit lost in my thoughts, sirens sound and blue and red lights flash in the street just outside the open front door. Just as I want to call for help, two policemen rush in guns pointed at me, I’m very quickly pushed to the ground and cuffed, my face plastered against the floor. Wait a second! I’m being arrested for the murder of myself! Is this some ironic joke?!

I hear one of the policemen ramble on about my rights or something. A third officer takes over as one of the ones who arrested me goes back inside the house. I’m completely dazed, everything seems to be happening around me in slow motion. A while later the officer who inspected the house comes back out walking toward Julia who is standing with a fourth policeman. As she’s talking to the officer next to her she looks over at me with fear. The officer that inspected the house reaches Julia and after saying something to her, she breaks down crying, nearly losing her balance as she hangs onto the officer she spoke to first. He helps her sit down on a bench close by. She doesn’t look my way again. I’m very roughly shoved into a police car. I mean, I get it, this body killed someone, me in fact but come on, why am I facing all the consequences of my own horrible fate? I’m really hoping this is a nightmare but it’s just too real. I need to speak with someone, maybe this has occurred before? I highly doubt that I’d find evidence of that, they would probably just write it off as an insanity case.

An ambulance arrives with the medics quickly rushing inside with a gurney, not much later my previous body is brought out in a body bag. This is just too weird. Julia looks up as the gurney moves past her. “Carrie! I’m so sorry Carrie. I’m so sorry, I should have been here. I’m so sorry!” Julia grabs onto the police officer once again as she tries to get back up but falters. Tears stream down her face and I feel my own eyes warming up. I want to tell her not to blame herself, I idiotically left the front door open, she’s not to blame. The cop that broke the news to Julia walks over to the car I’m currently sitting in. He looks at me with a lot of hostility. As he opens the front driver side door the other cop that cuffed me walks over to him. “Erin, Jack said he was going to stay with the girl until one of her family members arrive and then he will come back to the station with Patrick to take her testimony. Patrick said he will watch over the rest of proceedings.” The cop next to Erin looks over at me. “We can take him back so long.” Erin is silent for a while when he finally nods in agreement. As the two cops get in the car I look over at Julia once again. She’s still crying with no sign of stopping any time soon. Now that I look at that officer named Jack again, I can’t help but think that they make a nice looking couple. It seems I’m still myself somehow, even if I’m in a different body, maybe I can still get out of this strange situation somehow.

.......

We drive to the police station in silence. I watch the city lights go by as I think that maybe I’ll never be able to see this sight again if they prosecute me and throw me in jail. I mean there’s so much evidence and I was basically caught red handed. I let out a deep sigh, unconsciously breaking the silence in the car. “Feeling regretful for not making a run for it?” A chill runs down my spine. Woah, this Erin guy can sure chill the air with but a few words. “Uh... never even considered it.” My voice is still raspy but my reply sounds more like I’m saying I didn’t consider washing the dishes than fleeing a murder scene. I see Erins’ eyes watch me in the rear-view mirror, he seems irritated by my reply, then shifts his gaze back to the road. Can’t say I blame him but seriously I’m the victim here.

We arrive at the police station. The other cop gets out and walks around to my side and opens the door. “Get out, we don’t have all night.” What a cliché line to say, well at least it wasn’t Erin who said it. I get out of the car and the two police officers each grab a shoulder as they escort me into the police station. I’m still finding it hard to control this body and stumble a bit landing on my knees. “Are you trying to pull some trick with us, get up!” That other cop yells as he pulls me back to my feet. I can see this Erin guy is the silent type. We keep walking and I take one last look at the sky before we enter the building.

........

I am thankfully in a cell of my own. I don’t know what I would have done if I was sharing a cell with some murderer. That could still happen in the future though, I think I should plead insanity, I don’t know what I will do if I really have to go to prison, a men’s prison to top it off. What would be worse, prison or a mental institution? I look around at the little cell I’m in. Four grey walls, a bed, a really flat pillow (you could say it’s a ditch rather than something that’s supposed to elevate your head), a basin and a toilet. Yeah, I’m not going to deal with that tonight. I’m exhausted, tomorrow I’ll figure out how to deal with this predicament I’m in. At least sleeping will get me away from it all. I slowly drift off to hopefully a wonderful dreamland while hearing the occasional drip of the broken tap in my cell. Tiny noises like this get so loud when you’re trying to fall asleep but even so I’m carried away by my exhaustion.