Extracted - Chapter 5 – Warp Ten Achieved

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 5 – Warp Ten Achieved

 

During the day, Nancy had enough family constantly around her to keep those areas of her brain stimulated enough to prevent them from being overwritten, but at night, when she was basically alone with only an occasional nurse creeping in and out, that wasn’t the case.  All day long the process had continued, working on other areas of the brain that the soul could more easily access since those areas weren’t in use, but at night, there was nothing preventing the process from invading the more immediate memories and traits.

By the time the nurse came into her room, early in the morning, the process had proceeded far enough that the major portion of Nancy’s memories and personality had been finally overwritten with Steve.  Unknown to Nancy, for all intents and purposes, she was now a boy in a girl’s body.  She had almost no memory left of being Nancy.  Therefore, it was Steve who opened his eyes to watch the nurse silently going about her duties.

Steve didn’t move a muscle as the nurse checked the monitors and a few other things around the room.  He considered her to be good looking.  A bit old for him, but still, she had a body he’d love to explore.  He dared not ruin things by letting her know he was awake and watching her so he continued to lay quietly, only his eyes could give away that he was actually awake.  In minutes, he was disappointed to see her leave.

A visit from Melody just then would be nice.  Especially if they could be alone for a while.  Would Melody get off doing it in a hospital room?  Something told him she would love it.  He certainly would.

It was only then that he realized that the spinning around in his head had finally stopped, or nearly stopped.  There was a bit, but it was so slight he could easily ignore it.  He was ready to get up.  He was ready to go home.  He was ready to do something.  Maybe practice some football.  He was ready to…go the damn bathroom!

It was only as he was getting out of bed that he was hit with the problem.  He remembered being hit with it yesterday.  Hair!  And a damn tiny girl’s body.  What the hell?  And he was feeling so good!  What was going on?

Having no choice, he made his way to the bathroom and sat to pee.  Once again he felt all around but found no sign at all of his penis.  What the hell?  What was going on?  Not knowing what to do about it, except hope that things would straighten out soon, he went back to bed.

He was tired of lying there though.  He needed to move.  He needed to exercise.  He should be getting in his morning run, preparing for football camp and the football season.  Not to mention, he had all those weights back in his room at home that he should be exercising with.  But being stuck in a hospital room left him with nothing he could do at all except sit there and fume in frustration, and sleep of course.  But he was getting tired of sleeping too, especially since his head was so much better today.

Where was that doctor?  He wanted to go home!

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

In Philadelphia, Henry and Agatha Marsh walked out of their house and headed to the car, heading once again for the hospital where their son was.

“I sure hope he’s doing better today,” Agatha said.

“Me too!” Henry agreed.  “I’ve got work to do.”

“Henry!  He’s our son.  Show some interest in something besides your damn job.”

“I’m worried about him too,” Henry admitted.  “He was doing a lot better yesterday.  What I want to see is for him to be able to go home today.  Finally!”

“Yeah,” Agatha agreed.  “Me too.  It’s just that….  What worries me is how confused he seemed last night.  Like everything he was talking about was all mixed up.”

“Huh!  Tell me about it,” Henry grunted as he got into the car.  “Who the hell is Emily that he kept talking about?  I thought his girlfriend was Melody.”

“She is.  I never heard of Emily, but I’m guessing she must be another one from school that’s caught his eye.”

“Obviously!” Henry agreed.  “Let’s just hope it’s all straight in his head by the time we get there.”

“Amen to that!”

A short while later, they walked into the hospital room and saw their son sitting up in bed.  The look on his face was strange, full of anger.

“Your back!” they heard Steve say somewhat nastily.

Agatha and Henry were a bit surprised by the attitude.  “Of course we are Steve,” Agatha told him.  “How are you today?  Is your head still spinning?”

“Hardly at all,” Steve told them.  “But why are you here?  I know who you said you are, but you aren’t.”

Both Henry and his wife were shocked.  “We’re not what?” Henry asked.

“My parents.  My mother and father.  My family!”

Agatha’s mouth hung agape.  “What?”

“Where’s my real mom?” Nancy demanded angrily.  “Where is she?”

“Steve!  I’m your real mother.  How could you think otherwise?”

“No you’re not!  I want my real mother.  I want my real father.  I want my real sister.  Where are they?  Because you’re not them.”

“Steve, what are you talking about?  Of course….”

“Stop calling me Steve.  I’m not Steve.  I’m Nancy.  Get it straight.  I’m Nancy.  Now where’s my real mother and father?”

Henry and Agatha could only stare at their son in disbelief.  “Nancy?” Henry asked.

“Nancy!” Nancy confirmed.  “Now go away and get my real family!”

“Stephen Marsh!” Agatha said angrily.  “Stop this stupid foolishness right now.  You certainly are not Nancy.  You’re my son, Stephen.  Stephen Marsh.  And we love you very much.”

“You are not my parents!” Nancy screamed back.  “And my name is Nancy, not Steve…or whatever you claim it is.  I’m Nancy.  Nancy Stiller.  And you better watch out because my father is a U.S. congressman, so don’t try and pull any funny business.”

“A U.S…” Henry started in disbelief.  “What the hell are you talking about?”

“My father.  He’s a congressman in the U.S. government!  He works in Washington.  Now go get him!  And stop trying to hand me all this other stupid bullshit about being someone else!  Go!  I want my real family, not you!”

Neither Henry nor Agatha knew what to do.  “Let’s find a doctor.  Fast!” Agatha said softly.  Together, they quickly left the room.  What had happened to their son.  Nancy?  A U.S. congressman?  Nothing was making sense!  Things were suddenly worse than they had been.

Together they hurried down to the nurse’s station.  “He’s ranting and raving!” Agatha exclaimed.

“He’s completely out of his head!” Henry added.

The nurse nodded.  “Yeah.  He was like that earlier when the doctor went in.  He ordered another CAT scan to see if anything shows up yet.”

“But what are we supposed to do?” Agatha asked.

The nurse shrugged.  “Wait and see what the scan shows.”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

In New York, the doctor was a little behind on his morning rounds, but that was nothing new.  He walked into Nancy’s room and saw her sitting up in the bed.  “Feeling better today?” he asked hopefully.

“I’m living in a hallucination.” Nancy’s body replied.

The doctor was immediately concerned.  “You’re hallucinating now?  In what way?”

“All I see is a girl’s body.”

“Where?” the doctor asked.  “Does she talk to you?”

“No!  I have a girl’s body.  Completely.  I even have to sit down to pee.  It’s ridiculous.  And don’t get me started on how real it feels as if I’ve got long hair.  It’s annoying, to say the least.”

The doctor was confused.  “But you are a girl.  A twelve-year-old girl.  And a very pretty one at that.  Why should you think…”

“I’m not a girl!” Steve shouted.  “Why can’t you see that?  Oh.  Shit.  You’re part of the hallucination too.  Damn, this is so real, I can’t believe it.  What kind of drugs did you give me?”

“Nancy.  We aren’t giving you any drugs at all.  All those drugs you were given while you were kidnapped should be out of your system by now.”

“Well, something isn’t, because they’re making me think I’ve got a stupid girl’s body.  Completely!  I can’t even feel my penis.”

“But you don’t have a penis, because you’re a girl.  You are very confused today.”

“You’re telling me,” Steve agreed.

“How is your head?  Is the room still spinning?”

“Not really.  Barely at all.  What a relief!  It’s just…now I’m hallucinating like you wouldn’t believe, and it feels so real.  I’ve got to get past this.  I’ve got football camp next week.”

“Football camp?”

“I’m a linebacker on our high school team,” Steve explained.

“Football!” the doctor muttered, trying to make sense of things.  “Nancy,” he said.  “I think I’m going to…”

“Nancy?” she said quickly.  “Don’t call me Nancy!  Stop calling me anything else.  My name is Steve.  Stephen Marsh.  Not Nancy!  Stop trying to make this damn hallucination worse than it is!”

“Nancy…Steve…Nancy…” the doctor said.  “I believe I’m going to send you for another CAT scan, and we’re going to put a rush on it!”

“Whatever!” Steve replied.  “I just want this hallucination to stop.  I just want the world to return to normal.”

“That’s what we’d all like,” the doctor agreed.  “I’ll set up the test.”  He quickly walked out.

Steve shook his head.  This was the darndest hallucination he could ever conceive.  It seemed so real.  Absolutely real, in every way.  Real enough that the doctor was ordering some kind of scan for him.  He really hoped that scan would find something to explain it all.  Otherwise, who knew how long he would be sitting to pee.  Ridiculous!  Not to mention, football camp was next week!  He needed to get better!

He was still sitting there fretting over everything when his room was invaded by three people.

“There she is,” Wanda Stiller said happily.  “You’re sitting up and looking so much better!  How are you darling?” she asked as she walked over toward her daughter.

Steve shook his head.  “Whoever you people are, why do you keep showing up?  You keep saying you’re my family, but I don’t know you.  Any of you!  It’s almost like you’re all part of my massive hallucination too…except I keep remembering you from when you were here before.  Who are you anyway?”

“Nance!” Emily exclaimed.  “What’s wrong with you?”

“I don’t know you either,” Steve told her.  “Even though you’re really pretty and I’d love to date you sometime.  Maybe when all this is over I can get your number.  But in the meantime, I just want something to start making sense!  I want to see someone that I actually know.”

“Someone you know?” Wanda asked, totally aghast.  “You don’t recognize us at all?  You don’t remember us?  You did yesterday.”

“I…don’t…know…you!  Even though yes, I remember you being here before.  I just want to see my own family.  I want to see people I actually know!”

“Like who?” Michael Stiller asked.

“Like maybe my father.  That would certainly be nice.  Even though he’s always working.”

“And who do you think your father is, if it isn’t me?”

“Who?  Who else?  Henry Marsh of course.  Philadelphia’s District Attorney.  That’s who my real father is.  Not you…whoever you are.”

“Henry Marsh,” Mike Stiller repeated, then shook his head.  “Nancy Stiller!  You stop this crazy ranting right now.  We’re your family.  We’re your mother and father.  Your real mother and father.  Not some made up, fake…I don’t know what!”

“I’m not making anything up.  And stop calling me Nancy.  My name is Stephen.  Stephen Marsh, and I’m not a girl, I’m a boy, and this is all driving me nuts!”

“This is so weird,” Emily muttered, staring at her younger sister in disbelief.  Her mother could only agree.

“Come on,” Mike told them.  “Let’s see if we can find a doctor.  Things just suddenly got a whole lot worse, and I didn’t see any of it coming.”

“Neither did I,” his wife agreed.

“Bye!  And don’t come back,” Steve called from his hospital bed when he saw them finally leaving.  The nerve of some people!  Now.  How the hell was he supposed to get this stupid hallucination to end?  If only it wasn’t so real.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Once again the CAT scan showed nothing wrong with Steve’s head.  The problem was that Steve seemed to be thoroughly convinced that he wasn’t Steve, but a twelve year old girl named Nancy instead.  With the CAT scan coming up clear, it was time to switch tactics.  Steve didn’t need a medical doctor.  He needed a psychiatrist.  A good psychiatrist!

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

The tests they ran on Nancy showed no physical problems at all.  Nancy had them all completely confounded though.  How could she possibly think she was a boy?  Some boy named Stephen.  And Nancy had made up so many facts about him that made it all seem so real.  Football?  It was crazy.  Nancy hated football.  Nancy was the epitome of a girly girl.  She loved dolls, makeup, clothes, and stuffed animals.  Certainly not sports of any kind.

In the end, the doctor sat down with Mike and Wanda Stiller and explained that there was nothing medically wrong with Nancy that he could find at all.  He was now going to refer her to a behavioral clinic in hopes that the psychologists there could do something with her.  It was time to send her to someone more knowledgeable about what was now a completely mental issue.  He was going to dismiss her from the hospital just as soon as he could make arrangements with the doctor he thought she needed.

 

Extracted - Chapter 4 – Increasing Warp Speed – Part 2 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 4 – Increasing Warp Speed – Part 2 of 2

 

Late in the afternoon, Nancy was alone with her mother in the New York hospital room.  Her sister had gotten bored and gone home for a while and her father, as usual, was out in the hallway somewhere talking on his phone.  Since Nancy was trying to get some rest, her mother was sitting and reading a book.

Nancy laid in her hospital bed with her eyes closed, but she wasn’t sleeping.  At least she didn’t think she was sleeping.  Instead, all the weird thoughts kept going through her head.  Thoughts that seemed like memories, except they weren’t her memories…but they sure seemed like her memories.  Why was she thinking so much about playing football?  She didn’t even like football.  It was the most stupid, idiotic game on the planet!  But she was remembering not only loving the game, but playing linebacker on a high school team.  She didn’t even know what a linebacker was, but thoughts that she was one filled her head.  She remembered the football being…snapped?…and the sudden intense crashing of bodies as she and the opposite team members literally battled for supremacy.  A battle she…he?…usually won.

But football wasn’t the only memories running through her mind.  There were easier, more normal memories.  Memories of family.  Memories of friends…that she didn’t know.  Memories of school, and classes that were far beyond what she had ever taken, yet her head seemed to know what they were all about.  Why?  How?  She didn’t understand any of it.

With all those strange memories coursing through her head, she forgot all about being Nancy again and relaxed into being Steve.  Everything was much more normal now.  It all made sense to her…as long as she…he…was Steve.  And she was Steve.  Stephen Marsh.  Linebacker for the high school football team in Philadelphia where he lived.  Was it his imagination, or did his head spinning get a little bit better again?  He wasn’t sure, but he hoped so.

With the room still quiet, he fell asleep fully, the most relaxed since he had woken up in the hospital the first time.  He dreamed.  He dreamed of playing football…and decimating the opposing team.  In his dream, he was the team hero, and his girlfriend, Melody, not only loved him, but she would do anything for him.  Absolutely anything!  Including sex.

It was a few hours later before Steve woke up.  When he did, he noticed the woman sleeping in the chair.  The woman who kept insisting she was his mother, except she wasn’t.  Where was the man who insisted he was his father?  His real father spent most of his time on the phone.  This other man seemed to do the same thing.  Was he out talking on his phone somewhere?  Who knew?  Who cared.  As long as they all stayed away from him and left him alone.

How long were they going to keep him here in the hospital?  Football camp started next week, and he needed to be there.  The team had a big season coming up soon and there was a lot of work to be done.  He wasn’t going to miss it for anything!

Tired of sleeping, he moved himself up on the bed so that he was sitting.  As he did, something pulled at his head.  Once sitting, he couldn’t bend his head forward because something had it stuck where it was.  He moved his body a bit and his head came free.  He grabbed at what was holding him down and found…hair.  He remembered the hair problem from earlier.  Now it was back again.  Why did he have such long hair?  It not only made no sense, it was annoying.  Very annoying.  How could he play football with all that hair?

Where was his mother and father?  Why was this other woman in the room with him?  She wasn’t his real mother.  Why did she have to insist that she was?

The feeling hit him then.  The need.  The need that everyone had.  The need that everyone had to deal with.  He had to pee.  Not wanting to wake the woman in the chair, He quietly moved the covers aside and slipped his legs over the side of the bed…and stopped.  His legs.  His legs were small and positively skinny.  His feet were tiny!  His arms and hands were tiny.  His body was tiny!  What kind of nightmare was this?  Tiny feet.  Tiny hands.  Tiny body.  And long hair.  What kind of psycho drugs had they given him?

Panic filled him, along with his need to pee.  He would just have to deal with the weird psycho stuff after he went to the bathroom.  On too small bare feet, he made his way to the bathroom in the room and closed the door.  He stood over the toilet and pulled up the hem of his hospital gown…and had another fit.  Where was his cock?  Where was his penis?  He didn’t appear to have one at all.  His sexual area looked just like…a damn girl’s!  What the hell was going on?  What was he supposed to do?

His hand reached down and felt for his cock.  He closed his eyes and searched, hoping the problem was some kind of visual thing, but his hand found nothing at all.  His need to pee was growing worse, not knowing any other way, he sat down on the toilet like a girl and spread his legs.  The pee simply gushed out of him, fortunately into the toilet.  It was all over faster than he imagined.  He stood up and once again felt for his cock, but his hand met nothing at all.  First the drugs were giving him hallucinations that he had a girl’s body, now they were making him think he had to pee like a girl too.  Not just weird, but maddening!

Stunned, he made his way out of the bathroom and back to the bed where he covered his stupid hallucinogenic body.  What kind of drugs had they given him?

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

In Philadelphia, Steve’s doctor was very concerned about the continued head spinning problem.  He ordered a CAT scan to be done.  After the scan, he would have been much happier if the scan had actually found something, but unfortunately, the scan didn’t show any kind of problem at all.  He was at his wit’s end to diagnose what was going on.  The only consolation he could grab onto was that at least the problem appeared to be getting better.  It was a very gradual improvement, but Steve did report each time that it was improving.

In the hospital room, Steve’s father excused himself and went out into the hallway to take another phone call, leaving Steve in the room with just his mother.

“I’ve got to get out of here!” Steve told her.  “We’ve got football camp next week and I need to be there.”

“Nothing would make us happier,” his mother replied.  “We’ve just got to get you well first.”

“It’s taking too long!” Steve complained.

“I agree,” his mother said.  “But you keep complaining about everything spinning around.  Is it still doing it?”

“Yeah, of course,” Steve replied, somewhat frustrated with it.  “I really wish it would all just get better.”

“Me and your father too,” his mother replied.  “Believe me!”

“Yeah,” Steve said, as visions of another girl swam though his head.  His sister?  Emily?  Something inside him suddenly yearned for Emily, and it wasn’t in the way he usually yearned for a girl, like his girlfriend Melody.

“Do you think you’re going to be well enough for football camp?” his mother asked.

“I’ll be there!” Steve insisted.  “One way or another!”

His mother laughed.  “I’m sure you will.  Let’s hope this all goes away fast.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed.  He laid there wondering though why he was so concerned about it.  He didn’t even like football.  It was a dumb, stupid sport for boys.  Why should she care about going to some football camp?  She didn’t care.  She certainly didn’t want to go.  Why were they even talking about it? 

“Is Melody still coming to the hospital later?” his mother asked.

Something slipped back into place inside his head.  “She said she was,” Steve replied, remembering the phone call he had with her earlier in the day.  “I’m looking forward to seeing her.”

“I’m sure you are,” his mother said, knowing full well that her son had a thing for pretty girls.  And Melody was certainly pretty.

But it wasn’t Melody that Steve wanted to see, it was Emily.  He wasn’t interested in the least in seeing Melody, except that she might be interesting for her to talk to.  An older girl, like her sister.  Maybe Melody would have some new makeup tricks that Emily didn’t know.  That would be fun!  Nancy grabbed unconsciously for her hair, and couldn’t find it.  Where?  What?  And then it hit her again, she was Steve, not Nancy.  She was a dumb stupid boy, not a pretty girl.  This woman who thought she was her mother kept talking, but Nancy had tuned her out and didn’t know what she was talking about, and she didn’t care.  She just wanted her real mother and her sister, or even her stupid workaholic father.  Any of them would be great instead of…oh yeah.  She wasn’t Nancy.  She was Steve, and this was his real mother.  Why couldn’t he keep things straight?  It was so annoying…just like not being able to find her long hair.

Everything was all mixed up.  He couldn’t wait to go to football camp, but she hated football.  He couldn’t wait to see his girlfriend Melody, but she couldn’t care less, other than maybe for some cool new makeup things she might try, if Emily or her mother let her have some more makeup to play with that is.  These were his parents, but they weren’t her parents.  He was Steve.  She was Nancy.  Was he both?

All he knew for sure was that his head was still spinning, and that he wanted to scream his head off…and cry like the little girl she was.

 

Extracted - Chapter 4 – Increasing Warp Speed – Part 1 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 4 – Increasing Warp Speed – Part 1 of 2

 

It was late in the day before the Philadelphia police detectives came into Stephen’s room.  As the city D.A., Stephen’s father was annoyed that it should take them so long, but at the same time, his son was still complaining about the room spinning, with or without his eyes open.  What had those drugs done to him?  According to the doctors though, he guessed his son was lucky that he had as much memory as he did.  Drugs like he had been given often caused memory loss.  Sometimes for quite a while.

Henry Marsh listened carefully as the detectives questioned his son, but as he already knew, Stephen remembered nothing, and it wasn’t just due to memory loss that the drugs could cause.  From what the doctors had said, it looked like they had fed him those drugs since the moment he had been abducted.  Four days!  They never once gave Stephen a chance to wake up.  Henry figured that was most likely so they wouldn’t have to deal with him.  His son played football and lifted weights…a lot!  He was strong.  Not someone anyone would want to mess with.

When the detectives finally left, Henry moved closer to his son again.  “How’s your head?”

“Still spinning,” Steve replied, “but not quite as bad…I think.  I wish it would stop.”

“The doctors explained that you’ve probably still got a lot of those drugs in you.  They kept you doped up for four days Steve.”

Steve shook his head.  “I barely remember going to bed last night.  Or, whenever it was.”

“Five days ago now.  And your mother and I have been going crazy trying to figure out why we were sleeping just down the hall, and we never heard anything at all when they took you.”

“Who knows,” Steve replied.  “Maybe they drugged you too.”

Henry nodded.  “Maybe.  Or they could have gassed us or something.  That sounds more likely.  Whoever it was, went out of their way to kill not just the power and internet connections, they even shut down our backup generator.  They might have simply gassed everyone in the house to make sure we’d stay asleep.  You as well.”

Steve shook his head.  “Don’t ask me.  I still can’t think, and everything is still all confused in my head like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Give it time son,” Henry told him.  “It’ll settle down.  Soon, I hope.”

Steve nodded, as memories that belonged to someone else flashed through his head.  Memories of being a girl named Nancy.  Weird!  Especially since they felt so real!

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Nancy’s New York hospital room was visited by a single investigator.  A woman.  Since Nancy was the daughter of a U.S. congressman, that woman was part of an FBI team that was investigating the abduction.  Nancy’s mother moved away from the bed, but she and her husband stayed close.  Nancy’s sister, Emily, was in the room now too.  She stayed further away.  Nancy was glad Emily was there.  The two of them had always been close.  Special!

The FBI woman sat in the chair Nancy’s mother had been using.  “Hi Nancy,” she said with a smile.  “I’m Ellen Rosenberg, with the FBI.  How are you feeling?”

“Awful!” Nancy replied.  “Everything is still spinning around.”

“I understand,” Rosenberg replied.  “So…can you tell me what you remember from when you were abducted?”

Nancy shook her head.  “Abducted?”

“Kidnapped.  Taken,” Rosemberg explained for the twelve year old girl.

“I don’t remember anything.  I don’t even remember going to bed last night.”

“It was a few nights ago now,” Rosemberg corrected her.

“Not for me,” Nancy replied.

Rosenberg nodded.  “I understand from the doctors that it looks like whoever took you probably kept you drugged and unconscious for the entire time.  We just can’t figure out why you were taken since no ransom note was ever sent.  Whoever did it, simply took you, then dropped you off a few days later where you could easily be found.  They had you for three days.  The question is, why?  Not to mention who.”

Nancy shook her head.  “Don’t ask me.  I don’t know.  I don’t remember anything at all…except all these weird things running through my head that don’t make any sense, especially since my head still won’t stop spinning.  Even keeping my eyes open is difficult.  The room keeps going all around and it’s making everything so much worse.”

“Weird things in your head?” Rosenberg prompted.  “Like what?”

“I don’t know.  I can’t make sense of anything.  All I know is that I’m completely confused.”

“So when you were taken,” Rosenberg said, “you don’t remember seeing your abductors at all.”

“Not that I remember.  Like I said, I don’t even remember going to bed that night.”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

The doctors for both Nancy and Steve were very concerned about their spinning heads issue.  It was the only reason they both were still confined to their respective hospitals.  Since their kids seemed to be doing well, other than their still spinning heads, the families of both Stephen and Nancy decided to go home for the night for some much-needed rest.  Both families, at both hospitals, promised to be back again as soon as they could tomorrow morning.

Without the constant stimulation to the needed areas of the brain by the family members, the process of overwriting the memories and personality traits in the brain was able to access those areas easier instead of mostly seeping through other areas and memories that hadn’t been needed.  Neither Steve nor Nancy would realize it, but while they slept, not only did the head spinning decrease somewhat, but so did their memories of their old lives.  Those memories being overwritten by other memories that had been in the souls they now possessed.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

In the New York hospital, once again it was Stephen, not Nancy, who first opened his eyes the next morning.  The first thing he realized was that his head was still spinning, but not nearly as bad as it had been yesterday.  The nurses checked on him, but otherwise barely talked to him at all.

As his eyes did their best through his still slightly spinning vision to follow one of the younger and more attractive nurses around the room, something immediately bothered Steve.  Something strange.  His hand quickly reached up and swiped at that something that kept brushing strangely against his head.  It wasn’t a bug like he first thought it might be.  Whatever it was felt strange and his hand immediately grabbed it hard and pulled…and it started to hurt.  What the heck?  He pulled again and felt the tugging to the top of his head.  It felt like….  No, it couldn’t be!  He pulled it around where he could see it and nearly fainted.  Hair?  Long hair attached to his head?  And he was holding a bunch of it in his…what?  His hand looked so small.  Why?  Long hair?  Nuisance long hair!  And small hands?  Yeah, his head spinning was really getting the better of him now.

As doctors usually do, one of them came in to assess how Nancy was doing.  “How do you feel today Nancy?” the doctor asked as he stood next to the bed with a clipboard in his hands.

Nancy?  What the…  Steve started to grow angry at the insult.  “I’m not….”  And then some of the old remaining memories finally hit him…her!  She was Nancy, not Steve.  No wonder she had long hair and small hands.  It was what she was supposed to have.  She breathed a sigh of relief.

“You’re not what?” the doctor asked, waiting for her to continue.

“Sorry,” Nancy replied.  “Yeah, my head is spinning still, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was yesterday.”

The doctor was concerned about that, but…  “At least it’s improved,” he told her.  “Still, I’m concerned about it.  Other than that, any problems?”

Not wanting to tell him about the weird things going through her mind, Nancy shook her head.  “No.”

“Good,” the doctor replied.  “I’ll check on you later.”  With that, he walked out.

What was going on with her head?  At least things weren’t spinning as bad today as they had yesterday, but they were still spinning.  She really wished her sister was there just then to be with her.  Emily always knew just what to do to make her feel better.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

In the Philadelphia hospital, things were remarkably similar to the way the situation was in New York.  Just as Stephen had woken up first in Nancy’s body in New York, Nancy woke up in Stephen’s body in Philadelphia.  Like with the person in New York, Nancy was quick to notice that while her head seemed to be a lot better today, things were still spinning around.

“Good morning,” one of the nurses said as she went about her duties in the room.  Nancy didn’t say anything.  She just watched as the nurse did this and that, then simply left.

Lying there alone again, Nancy sat up in the bed to be more comfortable for a while, hoping the spinning would stop altogether.  It didn’t.  But once she was in the new position, she bent her head forward a bit, expecting to feel the usual pull from her long hair, except there was no pull.  Her hand unconsciously reached around to grab her hair and run her fingers thought it…and discovered practically no hair on her head at all.  She panicked!  What happened to all her beautiful long hair?  Both hands now groped all around the top of her head.  What was going on?  Where was her hair?

A man walked into the room  It took her a moment to realize he was a doctor.

The doctor noticed her agitation.  “What’s wrong?” he asked immediately.

“My hair!” Nancy replied, immediately realizing her voice was all wrong.

“What’s wrong with it?” the doctor asked.

“It’s not there!” she told him.  “What happened?”

The doctor shook his head.  “Your hair looks just fine.”

“No it’s not.  I have long hair.  Long brown hair that feels like silk.  Not this…whatever it is.  And why is my voice so bad?”

“Bad?” the doctor asked, fully concerned now.

“Yes!  Why do I sound like this?  Like a…I don’t know what.  Like a man.”

“I don’t understand,” the doctor said.  “Why wouldn’t you?”

“What’s going on?” Nancy yelled.

“Okay.  Settle down,” the doctor told Stephen’s body.  “I think we’re having a bit more of a reaction to those drugs than we expected.  I’m going to get you something to help calm you down.”

“Calm me down?  Just tell me where my hair is!  What happened to me?”

“You know what happened,” the doctor told her.  “You were abducted and kept drugged for days.”

“But where’s my hair?” she cried as her hands came off her head and started waving around in front if her to accent her question.  It was then that she noticed her hands and her arms.  They were huge!  Really huge.  And there was hair on her arms.  She stared in disbelief at them.  “What the…” she managed to get out as she continued to stare, not understanding anything.

More people suddenly walked into the room.  People that for some reason Nancy vaguely recognized, even though she couldn’t quite place who they were.

“Oh doctor,” Agatha Marsh, Stephen’s mother said.  “We were hoping we’d get here early enough to see you.  How is he?”

“Very confused!” the doctor replied quickly, his voice full of concern.  “Excuse me.  I’ll be right back.”  He hurried out.

Stephen’s mother and father moved over to the bed.  “How are you today Steve?” his mother asked.

Steve?  “Who are you?” Nancy demanded.

Both of Steve’s parents were aghast.  “Steve,” his father said.  “What’s going on?”

Nancy looked at the man.  “And who are you?” she demanded.

“Steve, what do you mean?  I’m your father.  Don’t kid around!”

“Who’s kidding!” Nancy yelled.  “And what happened to me?”

“Steve, you know what happened,” Henry told his son.  “You were abducted and kept drugged.”

Nancy shook her head.  “That’s what the doctor said, but what happened to me?”

“We don’t understand dear,” Steve’s mother said.  “What’s going on?  Don’t you remember us?”

Nancy stared at them.  They did look familiar.  Very familiar.

“Steve,” Henry said.  “Wake up!  Get your head on straight.”

Nancy wanted very much for her head to be on straight, but it was still spinning, just like the entire room.  Steve?  What the…  And then something finally clicked within her head, and she nearly blacked out.  It wasn’t the first time she had to deal with this problem.  She wasn’t Nancy, she…no he…was Steve…Stephen!  Not Nancy.  And they were his parents, Henry and Agatha Marsh.  He closed his eyes and shook his head, oddly still missing the feel of the hair he thought should be there.  He opened his eyes again and looked up at his parents.  “Mom.  Dad.  What happened to me?”

“That’s what we’d like to know,” Henry Marsh told his son.  “Do you remember us now?”

“Yeah.  It’s just that…everything is still all weird.”

“Is the room still spinning?” his mother asked.

“Some.  Not like before,” Steve told her.  “But it is still spinning.  It’s driving me crazy!”

Why was he suddenly having thoughts of a…sister?…named Emily?

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Extracted - Chapter 3 – Scotty, Engage Warp Engines

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 3 – Scotty, Engage Warp Engines

 

Nancy’s mouth felt like it was filled with cotton…or wool.  Horrible.  But worse, her head was spinning around and around.  She felt absolutely miserable, even asleep, where she just wanted to go back to.  Moaning miserably, she opened her eyes.  The room around her was swimming, which only made her feel sicker than she had felt before.  She quickly closed her eyes again.

“Steve!” a woman’s voice exclaimed.

It was a moment before Nancy could open her eyes again.  Her head was spinning so badly that nothing was making sense, especially the strange woman hovering over her.

“Steve.  You’re awake!” the woman said.

Nancy closed her eyes again, not knowing or realizing what the woman was talking about.  Everything about her just felt and seemed all wrong.  Nothing felt right.  Her head wasn’t even together enough for her to wonder what had happened to her.

“Steve.  Come on, wake up honey,” the woman’s voice came again.  “Open your eyes for me.  Come on Steve.”

Who was Steve?  Nancy didn’t know and didn’t care.  She just wanted the woman to go away and leave her alone so she could go back to sleep, where maybe, hopefully, her head wouldn’t be spinning so much and she would feel better.  She felt someone grab her hand.  Ugh!

“Come on Steve.  Come on honey.  You can do it.  Wake up Steve.  Wake up!”

Steve?  Wanting to keep her eyes closed and go back to sleep, Nancy had no choice but to open her eyes again.

“Steve!  Stay with us.  Stay with us honey.  We’ve got you.  You’re alright now.  You’re just fine.  Everything is just fine.”

Nancy had a different opinion about that.  Who the hell was Steve?

“Steve!”  A man’s voice this time.  “Come on son.  Stay awake.  Can you talk to us?  Say something.  Say anything at all.  Steve!  Steve!”

Her bleary eyes showed her a man now hovering over her next to the woman.  She had no clue who they were.  She had no clue about anything.  All she knew was that her head was spinning horribly…and it made her want to puke.

“Steve, son.  Are you with us?” the woman asked desperately.

Nancy’s eyes closed as she tried to get her mouth to form the biggest question she had.  “Who’s…Steve?” she barely managed to whisper through her woolly tasting and dry mouth.

“Steve?” the man said.

But Nancy’s poor rattled and drug infested brain couldn’t cope with anything else.  She passed out again.

“You saw it Henry,” Agatha Marsh exclaimed.  “He was awake.  He spoke to us.”

“Yeah,” Henry agreed.  “He was awake.  Barely, but he was there.  But now it looks like he’s gone again.”

“But he talked!” Agatha said.

“Yeah.  Obviously though, the drugs have him confused.”

“Yes,” his wife agreed.  “But still, it’s a good sign.”

“It’s a great sign,” Henry Marsh agreed.  “I’d just feel better if he would wake up again.  Soon!”

“Me too,” Agatha agreed.  “Come on Steve.  Wake up honey.  Wake up!”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Several hours away, in a New York hospital, Stephen’s head was spinning so badly he didn’t know what to do.  He didn’t want to wake up, but somehow he knew he had to.  He just needed to find the strength and willpower to open his eyes.  But finding those muscles to open his eyes wasn’t easy.  It took him several head spinning moments before he managed it.  The light assaulting his eyeballs hurt, so did the sight of the badly spinning room that he saw.  Nothing was making sense.  Nothing was helping him figure things out.  Not even how to move any part of his body.

“Nance!” a woman’s voice exclaimed from right next to him.

For the first time, Stephen now felt that someone was gripping his hand.  That grip grew much more firm as that person stood up over him.  The sight of some woman over him, spinning all around like the rest of the room, nearly made him black out again, but something made him struggle to hold on.  He was a tough kid.  He knew that.  He could do it.  He just didn’t feel so tough just then.

“Nance!  Nancy!” the woman said.

But all Stephan could do was watch the woman and the room beyond her spinning in circles.  Come on head.  Stop that.  Settle down.  Please!

“Nancy darling.  Please look at me.  Please say something.”

It wasn’t until then that something in what she said reached through to him.  Nancy?  But it was just one more thing on top of everything else that didn’t seem to be working.  Especially his eyes.  He closed them again, hoping the spinning would go away, so maybe, maybe, he could start to make sense of everything else.

“Nancy!  No.  Don’t go back to sleep darling.  Stay with me.  Nancy!  Nancy!”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

The spinning inside Nancy’s head was finally beginning to slow down.  Slow down, but not stop.  She could feel someone holding her hand, but that’s all she could tell.  She just wanted her spinning head to stop.  Hoping it would help, she chanced opening her eyes again.

“Steve?” a man’s voice said.  “Steve?  Are you awake again?  Stay with us Steve.  Please stay with us.”

Steve?  A faint memory of the last time she opened her eyes somehow came back to her.  But it made no sense at all.  Steve?  With a huge effort, she managed to somehow focus her eyesight on the man hovering over her.  And then a woman joined him.  Who were they?  She had no idea.

“Steve,” the woman said.  “Are you alright?”

It was hard to speak, but she tried.  “Who?” she managed to get out.  Her voice sounded weird.  Probably because of the way her mouth tasted.

“Steve,” the woman said desperately.  “It’s me.  Mom.  Steve, do you remember?”

Mom?  But an image of a different mother swam shakily in her head…before it was lost again.

“Who?” Nancy managed to say again, annoyed that her voice wasn’t any better.

“Steve!” the man’s voice said.  “She’s your mother.  And I’m your father.  Remember?  Please remember?”

Remember?  She couldn’t even think…at all!  Nothing was making sense, and with everything spinning around so much, she didn’t even care if it made sense.  But with the continued sight of the man and woman hovering over her, urging her on and calling her Steve, something within her finally snapped into place.  They were calling her Steve because she was Steve.  But that wasn’t right, she was Nancy.  No, she was Steve.  She was so confused, and the room was still going around making her feel worse than she was.

“Steve, say something,” the man urged again.

The memories locked a bit firmer into place.  He was Steve, not Nancy, even though Nancy felt right as well.  And those people were….  “Mom?  Dad?” he said, finally recognizing them for who they were.

The relief both Henry and Agatha felt was huge.  “Steve,” Henry said.  “You’re alright.  You’re alright,” he repeated gratefully.  “For a moment there we didn’t know if you’d remember anything.  How do you feel?”

“Awful.  The room won’t stop spinning.  And it’s bad.  Real bad.”

“It’s the drugs in your system,” his father explained.

“I’ll find a doctor,” his mother told him.  She leaned over and hugged him.  “I’m so glad you’re back.  We were so worried!”  With that, she left and hurried out of the room.

Henry Marsh had been Philadelphia’s District Attorney for some time now, and old habits died hard.  “Do you remember what happened?” he asked his son.

Remember?  Remembering was too difficult  Nothing was making sense.  He knew these people were his parents.  He knew his name was Steve, but at the same time, they weren’t his parents, and he wasn’t Steve.  Everything was just too confusing.

“Steve, do you remember what happened to you?”

Steve shook his head.  “I can’t remember anything.  Nothing is making sense.”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

In the New York hospital, Stephen was aware that his head was still spinning horribly.  He opened his eyes again and the room spinning like his head only made things worse.

“Nancy!”  That woman’s voice again.  He felt her grip on his hand tighten and she stood over him.  Who the hell was she?

“Nance!”  The man’s voice.  Stephen didn’t know him either.  He closed his eyes because the spinning room was simply too much for him to keep looking at.

“Nance!  Stay with us.  Wake up!” the man’s voice said firmly.  “Stay with us!”

“Wake up darling,” the woman begged.

He opened his eyes.  Who did they think they were talking to?  And why the hell did they keep calling him Nancy?  Was this some kind of joke?

“Go…away,” he managed to get out of his mouth.  But the act of speaking had been weird.  Not just the sound that came out, but the entire process felt all wrong.

“Nance!” the man exclaimed.

“Nancy, darling,” the woman said desperately.  “We’re here for you baby.  Right here.  Please wake up.”

Steve did his best to focus his eyes on the weird people.  “Why are you….”  And then it was like something inside his head broke free and things seemed to align themselves a bit better.  He wasn’t Steve, she was Nancy!  “Mom!  Dad!” she finally recognized them.  “What happened?”

“Don’t you remember?” her father asked.

“Uh-uh,” she managed to say, closing her eyes again to the spinning world around her.  “Everything is going around, inside my head and the room.  It…hurts.”

“Must be the drugs,” her father said.  “I’m sure it will pass soon.”

Nancy had a feeling it wouldn’t though.  And why, why, why did she still think that her name was really Stephen, and that these weren’t her parents?  Why?  Nothing was right.  Nothing was making sense.  If only the room would stop spinning, maybe then she could think.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

The Nature of Souls

 

Whether or not you believe in souls is entirely up to you.  I’m not here to argue the point one way or another.  But the truth is that all living creatures have some kind of soul.  There is one subject about souls however that is generally ignored when anyone discusses the point, and that is the subject of memory.  And the strange truth is that souls have a memory.

The first thing we need to consider here is the strange subject of ghosts.  What are ghosts but the remains of poor living souls who for some reason or another have needs that keep them tied to this earth.  Needs so strong that they can’t move on from it.  This has been documented by ghost hunters around the world for many years.  The ghosts seem to remember things from their past living existence, and they are so affected by those things that they can’t leave after their bodies have died.  Memory.  Ghosts also tend to stay in one particular area that they find to be the most meaningful to them, never really leaving to travel or do anything but stay in that comfortable place that they remember.  They remember, because those souls contain their past living memories.

The other thing we need to consider is the subject of instinct.  The way so many creatures, from the moment they are born, have the knowledge of how to do things.  Horses and cattle know how to stand and walk within moments of being born.  Birds know how to flap their wings and as soon as they have sufficient feathers, fly.  Geese know their migrating routes automatically, even though it was their forebearers who last flew it.  Other creatures have other traits that seem to be inborn in them from the moment they are born.

It is entirely possible that each of those traits that are pre-embedded into their brains comes from a soul that enters into each of their bodies while still inside the womb.  Once there, the information that is needed is simply written from the soul into the physical aspects of the brain, ready for the creature to use the moment it is born.  It is this effect that is the most important here.

From the moment that both Stephen and Nancy received their new souls, the memories residing in those souls began to slowly work their way into the physical brains of each of them, overwriting the memories and personality traits that already existed.  The process is slow because humans have many memories and much information stored in the crevices of their brains.  The older a person is, the more memories they have that need to be overwritten, so the process takes longer.  But still, the soul takes precedence, and little by little the old information is destroyed and replaced with the new, making a hard copy in the brain of what the soul had stored.

No matter what, the soul wins out.  The brain and the soul must exist in harmony as one, and both the brain and soul strive to achieve that point as quickly as possible.  Until that point is reached, confusion reigns supreme within the living person, because otherwise the body and brain have to contend with being two people at the same time instead of only one.

For Nancy and Steve, being kept unconscious for an entire day while their bodies were returned to where they could be found gave the process a head start in overwriting each of their memories, but when they each woke up, the process was far from complete.  As mentioned, the human brain contains a lot of memories.  It would eventually take days for the process to fully complete itself, with Steve taking slightly longer than Nancy because he was older.  No matter what though, it's out with the old, and in with the new.

Like it, or not, the soul is the person, not the brain.

The soul always wins.

 

Extracted - Chapter 2 – Accidently On Purpose

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 2 – Accidently On Purpose

 

(Five Years Later)

 

“Henry Marsh!”

Doctor Judith Rameriz looked up at her best friend and lover, Doctor Benjamin Folley.  “What?”

“The answer to your problem,” Ben replied.

“Marsh?” Judith asked.  “Marsh is my problem!”

“Yes.  But what if we could also make him your solution?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your idea.”

“What idea?”

“To use the soul capture system for revenge.”

Judith looked at him for a few moments, then sighed.  “Yeah, I’d really love to get back at that ass.”

“So do it.  We’ve been talking about doing another experiment with the system anyway.”

“Yeah but…”  She stared at him again for a moment before she said, “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“Just like you yourself said.  Marsh took your son and threw him in prison where he doesn’t belong, and he’s not letting him go.”

“Despite the fact that Josh is innocent!” Judith threw out.

“Exactly!” Ben agreed.

“But all I said,” Judith reminded him, “was that I’d like to take his son away from him and lock him away where he couldn’t see him anymore, just like I can’t see my son.  Revenge!”

“That’s not all you suggested,” Ben reminded her.

Judith considered that.  “Yeah.  I did say it would be fun to take his son and switch his soul with someone else so that Marsh got back something he wouldn’t be expecting.”

“And that he would probably never figure out,” Ben added.

Judith nodded reluctantly.  “True,” she agreed.  She held her hand up.  “And yes, before you say anything else, it would serve that sanctimonious asshole right.  We all know Josh is innocent.  There was no credible evidence at all that tied him to that murder, but Marsh still managed to get him declared guilty and sent away for the next fifty years!”  Her anger flared.  “I want to murder him so bad!” she shouted.

“Hence…” Ben said softly.

Judith considered it for a moment.  “Hence, we somehow kidnap his son, remove his soul, and replace it with someone else.  And then I guess, give his son back to him…or give back whoever, or whatever, that person…or thing…winds up being.”

“At the worst, as far as everything we know, his son would wind up in a coma.”

Judith nodded.  “Yeah.  His son would be there…but not there.”  She considered that again.  “Like Josh.  He’s there, but not so that anyone can really see and talk to him easily.  There, but not there.”

Ben nodded.  “You wanted to look for an experiment.”

“Yeah, but to duplicate what happened to Hector first.  One subject.  Pull his soul, then put it back again.  With lots of testing!”

“We can test,” Ben told her.  “All you want.”

“But what you’re suggesting, we wouldn’t be doing it to just one person, we would be doing it twice, to two different people.  And worse, we’d be trying to put each soul we collect, back into the wrong bodies!  What kind of disaster would that bring?  It could kill them!”

Ben shrugged.  “Maybe.  But most likely not.  Not from what data we were able to collect.”

“What little of it there was,” Judith reminded him.

“True,” Ben conceded.  “But still, the possibility is there.  For both the scientific study, and…”  He stopped, waiting for her to catch up.

“Revenge,” she finally said.  “Yeah, I seem to remember that Marsh has a son, and he’d probably make an excellent candidate for the experiment.”

“Not to mention, it’s all about getting revenge on him as well.”

“Yeah, of course,” Judith agreed.  “But who would be the second candidate?”

Ben shook his head.  “That of course, would be the bigger problem.”

The two of them spent the rest of the day discussing it.  Who would be a good candidate for the second person.  And more importantly, what type of person would be the best to swap with Marsh’s son.  Again and again, in order to get back at Marsh for what he had done, they discussed the best type of person to abduct.  Kidnapping a city gang member, a criminal mind, was high on their list.  It would be the perfect revenge solution for the overly righteous asshole that Marsh was.

It wasn’t until after dinner that Ben suddenly came up with a different solution.  One that might even be better.  “I know!” Ben suddenly said.

“Know what?”

“Who the second candidate should be?”

“Who?”

“Congressman Michael Stiller’s daughter.”

“Stiller?  He did everything possible to try and get the government to stop our water system from being approved and sold.”

“And in the end, we proved that there wasn’t one single thing wrong with it,” Ben reminded her.  “But he was still our biggest obstacle to getting it on the market.  And look where we are now.”

“A lot richer than even we expected,” Judith admitted.  “And yeah, Stiller was a real asshole in trying to get everything launched.”

“So…” Ben said.

Judith considered it again.  “Congressman Stiller has a daughter?” she asked.  “I didn’t know.”

“I think he has two,” Ben told her.  “I think one would probably be in her teens now, and the other a few years younger.”

“And how old do you think Marsh’s son is?  From the one time I saw him with his family, I would guess he was in high school somewhere,” Judith said.

“Ben nodded.  “I’d guess a junior or senior by now.  I’m not sure.  But if we’re going to go the kidnapping route, then we kidnap Marsh’s son and Stiller’s older daughter, and then make the switch.  Their ages would be similar enough.”

Judith considered that, but another possibility came to her.  “Or…” she said.  “We kidnap Marsh’s son, and Stiller’s younger daughter.”

“The young one?”

Judith nodded.  “Wouldn’t that make a more drastic statement for Marsh?”

Ben nodded.  “Probably.  If anything happens to them at all.”

“True,” Judith conceded.

Judith and Ben discussed it for several days before finally deciding to explore going ahead with the plan.  The biggest discussion revolved around whether they should bring in the rest of the original team to help them.  The team working on the water system had been expanded now, but the original members were the only ones who knew what had happened to Hector, and they all wanted to keep it that way.

While the new, larger team worked on improving the water system, trying now to make it smaller so it could more easily be used for villages where not as much water was needed, the original members now met twice a month to discuss what they should do about the soul extraction problem.  The original machine that had extracted Hector’s soul now resided in the basement of Judith’s new mansion.

The only original member who was no longer with the team was Hector himself.  After the process left him in a coma, his family argued against him working on it anymore.  The team still awarded him his share of the money they now brought in for the process, but Hector had quietly retired.  He was never told what happened to his soul.  He only knew that the wave generator had malfunctioned, and it put him in a coma for three months.

The biggest item on the original team’s discussion list now was if they should bring in a new member to their team to aid in their scientific testing for the soul extraction.  They all knew that having a medical doctor or at least a psychiatrist on the team, or both, would be a good idea, but the problem was, like with everything else about the project, did they dare let anyone else know?  The situation was simply that sensitive.

As to Judith and Ben’s plan for revenge however, in the end, Judith and Ben both agreed that they didn’t dare tell anyone else on the team what they were planning on doing.  Ben decided they would have to hire someone to kidnap both subjects for them, then he and Judith would handle the soul exchange themselves.  Then those same men could return the kidnapped kids to where they could be easily found.

One further development they decided to add was the addition of a ransom demand for the return of Marsh’s son.  If Marsh got Josh out of prison and had him declared innocent of the crime like he really was, they would do nothing but return Marsh’s son safely back to him…unharmed.  In the back of their minds, both Judith and Ben really hoped that Marsh would give in and free Josh, and none of what they planned on doing would take place.  But if not….  Neither of them knew what would happen when they tried it.  They could only hope.

Finding information on the kids they planned on kidnapping was easy.  Philadelphia’s District Attorney Henry Marsh had only one child, a son named Stephen who was seventeen years old and would be entering his senior year of high school.  U.S. Congressman Michael Stiller had two daughters, Emily who was sixteen, and Nancy who was only twelve and going into the seventh grade.  Finding that information was the only easy thing that Judith and Ben needed to do.

It took Ben almost a month to find someone who was willing to kidnap both kids for them, and he had to go into New York to find them.  It was going to cost Judith a lot of money, but because of their water system, money was no object.  After another two weeks of planning, they were ready.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

They were professionals.  Not just criminals, but mercenaries who had spent a good part of their lives in the military.  Now the kind of jobs they hired themselves out for were a different kind of dangerous, and often illegal.  As long as it paid well, they didn’t care.

In the dead of the night, outside of Philadelphia, one of the three men picked the lock on the back door to Henry Marsh’s house and all three of them entered silently.  They had already disabled everything they could, so they weren’t overly worried about alarms.  With guns drawn and ready, they crept through the kitchen and found the stairs.  Silently they went up.  Henry Marsh’s son’s room was easy to locate since it had a large sticker pasted on the outside showing a rock band.  The door to his room was unlocked like they expected.  Still making no sound, they opened the door and went inside.  Stephen Marsh was asleep, as he should be.  In moments, there was no chance of him waking any time soon.  A hand was placed over his mouth to stifle any kind of scream, and a needle was plunged into his neck containing a drug that left him sound asleep for the foreseeable future.

With one man keeping his gun out in case of trouble, the other two carried Stephen’s large muscular body out of his room and down the stairs.  In moments they were out of the house and soon had him loaded into the back of a van.  They drove him to the specified pickup location where they transferred Stephen’s sleeping body into the back seat of a car.  Ben paid them the first installment and wished the men good night.

Ben drove back to Judith’s mansion where he and Judith struggled to get Stephen safely down to her basement where the water treatment system/soul extractor was located.  Stephen was put into a small room where his wrist was chained to the wall.  The chain was hopefully unneeded since they planned on keeping him asleep for the duration.

With that much done, Judith and Ben retired to her bedroom for some much-needed rest.

The next morning, Ben made a phone call, and the ransom note for Stephen went out to a server in the Bahamas, where it was then sent on to Philadelphia District Attorney Michael Marsh in the form of a simple email.  The note explained that his son Stephen would be returned in good shape if Joshua Rameriz, one of the founding members of the Planetary Eco Alliance group, was released from prison in the next two days and all charges against him were dropped.  To all appearances, the email looked like it might have been the work of the activist group that Josh did indeed belong to and that was responsible for a number of ecological scandals around the world.  Nothing in it tied it to Judith or Ben in any way.

That night, the abduction process was repeated.  This time, outside of New York City.  Several hours later, the mercenaries delivered U.S. Congressman Stiller’s twelve-year-old daughter Nancy into Judith and Ben’s clutches.  Nancy’s drugged and unconscious body was placed in the same basement room and chained to the wall where Stephen was.

Judith herself made sure that Stephen received injections every few hours to keep him unconscious.  Once Nancy was delivered into her care as well, she made sure that Nancy received the same drug to keep her asleep.

For the next two days, Judith and Ben studied the news.  They also had no choice but to talk with some police detectives who considered that they might have kidnapped Stephen since Josh Rameriz mentioned in the ransom demand was Judith’s son.  The police had no proof that Judith and Ben had done anything at all, so they were soon left alone, especially since it looked like the activist group was the real responsible party.  Nobody talked to them about Nancy at all.  Why would they?  Nancy’s abduction was a New York problem and had nothing at all to do with Philadelphia.

While they waited, hoping that Judith’s son would be released from prison, both Judith and Ben did as much of a thorough physical examination on both Stephen and Nancy as they could.  Both of them wished that they had gone ahead and brought a medical doctor into their special soul extraction team, but at the same time, they both knew that because what they were doing was so illegal, they could never dare tell anyone else.  Judith and Ben made very sure however that the drugs to keep both subjects unconscious were administered regularly to make sure neither of them ever woke up.

After two days, when it looked like Josh was going to remain in prison, the decision to move forward with their experiment was made.  Ben and Judith were both in complete agreement that they should do it.

Seventeen year old Stephen Marsh was placed naked into the water/soul extraction machine first.  His unconscious body was laid down in the final chamber and when everything was double checked and ready, the machine was turned on.  It took only seconds before Judith herself switched the machine off, but by that time, just as it had done with Hector, the machine indicated that something was in the small extraction canister, despite the fact that once again, there was no mass and nothing at all for the spectrometer to read.

Stephen’s comatose body was dragged from the machine and Nancy’s smaller body was placed into it.  A new collection canister was put into place, and the process was repeated.  They had now captured not just one human soul, but two.

Feeling the monstrous weight of what they were about to do, the canister containing Nancy’s soul was removed from the machine and the one containing Stephen’s soul was put in its place.  It took only minutes for them to reverse the magnetic field.  When all was ready, Judith looked to Ben and softly said, “Here goes.”

As before, when they had done it with Hector, only five seconds elapsed between the time that Judith switched the machine on and when she turned it off.  When they pulled Nancy’s body from the machine, they both heard her let out a small moan of distress before she lapsed once again into complete unconsciousness.  Judith and Ben looked at each other, then continued removing Nancy’s body.  They took it all the way back to the room where they had been keeping her and chained her to the wall again.

When they were done, they put Stephen back into the machine and put the canister containing Nancy’s soul in place.  As before, the machine was only on for five seconds before it was turned off.  Stephen’s body made no sound at all as they dragged it from the machine back to the room where they chained it to the wall.  The fact that Stephen had made no type of sound was something that neither Judith nor Ben commented on, but it concerned each of them.

For the next day, Judith religiously kept the drugs going into both Nancy and Stephen to keep them unconscious.  Neither she nor Ben knew what was going to happen with the switched souls.  They only knew for sure that both subjects were alive.  The drugs made it impossible to know if they were in any kind of coma as Hector had been.

Would Nancy and Stephen remain in deathlike comas for the rest of their lives?  Or would they both awaken as Hector had done and be perfectly fine?  Or, the thing both Judith and Ben were the most interested in learning, would either subject show any changes because of the swapped souls?  And if so, what would those changes be?

Only time, and waiting, and watching from a distance would give them any kind of clues as to what would happen.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

That night, the mercenaries were back.  In a secluded meeting place, they collected the unconscious bodies of both Stephen and Nancy.

An hour later, Stephen’s unconscious body was found outside of a Philadelphia restaurant, still in the same pajamas he had worn to bed when he had been abducted.

It wasn’t until several hours later that Nancy’s body was found outside of a New York restaurant.

There was no security video of the return of either child.  Nobody had seen anything at all.  Both Stephen and Nancy were picked up by ambulances and transported to hospitals, but they were hospitals in two different cities and no connection between the abductions was made.

The next day, Judith and Ben watched carefully, but the return of both abducted kids barely made the news at all.  The only thing Judith and Ben learned was that as they expected, both Nancy and Stephen had been found unconscious, and that both kids were still unconscious when they reached the hospitals.  But then with all the drugs they had kept them on, it was going to be some time yet before either of those kids was going to wake up.

The only question was, what would those kids wake up to?  That is, if they woke up at all.