Swapping

'Ash?'

We stared at each other for a few more seconds without saying anything. We were both trying to process what had happened in the past few minutes.

I watched as the woman stood up, wincing as she did so. She looked at me and sighed deeply.

'What did you do?' she asked me.

'Hey, I didn't do anything on purpose. I was just trying to stop the stone from falling from the ring,' I said, looking at her. I saw that the ring was in her hands while I had been looking for it everywhere.

Even I was finding it difficult to understand what had happened, but now I was also starting to feel some excitement. I had never been in such a position before. I looked at her and I slowly smiled.

'How does it feel to be a woman, Dave?' I asked as I looked at my own body in front of me. It felt alienating to see someone who looked like me, wearing my clothes, but who was no longer me, right in front of my eyes. It was a surreal experience, as if I was hovering above my body after dying. And yet, I was not dead, I thought as I looked at my hands, or should I say at Dave's hands.

Once again, I turned to the televison screen and looked at my reflection on the glossy surface. Dave's unsmiling face looked back at me. Apparently, when I had moved the stone, it activated the body-shifting procedure Dave had been talking about, but instead of travelling across worlds, we merely travelled to each other's body. I recalled that Dave's hand had been on me after he stopped me from falling.

It was a freaky experience to be in someone else's body, especially someone of the opposite sex. I felt so tall that the perspective and angle at which I looked at the world around me had changed. There were times when I had actually wished to be a boy and now that it had happened, I did not know how to feel.

I saw another reflection next to mine and knew that Dave was appraising the same thing. I could see that he was not happy at all.

'You know, I'm not really to be blamed,' I began. 'At least not entirely,' I added when I saw the grimace on his or should I say her face. 'Okay, maybe you could say that I was the one to take the ring, but I didn't try to use it on purpose,' I defended myself.

In fact, he should be thanking me for taking such a dangerous tool from Estena. Who knew what she might have done with it? But maybe it was not the moment to tell him?

'How do we reverse this?' Dave then asked me. He then adopted that perpetual frown of his, but this time it was on my forehead! I reached out and smoothed out the frown with my hands.

'I'm not in such a hurry to get a deep wrinkle over there, so please stop frowning,' I said primly.

I took the ring from his hands and looked at the stone which was now back safely ensconced within the prongs.

'Maybe if I shift it back to where it was, we'll find our respective bodies,' I said, looking down. Usually I was the one who had to raise my head slightly to look at people when talking, so it was a refreshing change. Did we have to swap so soon? It was not something that happened everyday, so maybe I could enjoy being a man for a few minutes. Or not, I thought, looking at the sharp gaze levelled at me. I didn't know that I could look so intimidating.

At that moment, a cushion, which was on the edge of the sofa, started falling on the ground and before I could think it through, I had already leapt to it and picked it just before it touched the floor. I looked at my body with my mouth agape. I didn't know I had such speed. I looked at the palm of my hands and felt so powerful at that moment.

'So this is how it feels to be a real vampire then?' I asked Dave. I couldn't wait to fully transition into one. I was feeling the changes in my body, but compared to the prowess I had just been capable of, it made me think that I still had a long way to go. Now I understood why the Vetalas were power-hungry; such strength and power was addictive and yet I had only had a little taste.

Dave came and took my hand in his. I looked at both our hands, how his was smaller and fit in mine so well and then at his eyes. My eyes. But the gaze was still his, the way he looked at me in an unwavering manner. I felt my pulse accelerate and became aware of the different ways my body was reacting to his nearness. I felt heat curl in my groin and I felt the blood rush to my lap. With awe, I realized that I was having an erection.

'It will come Ash, with time even you will be strong. I know it's hard.'

I knew he was telling the truth about the fact that I would be stronger, but I was relieved that he didn't know how hard it was, how hard I was. I could feel my nerve endings sing and I felt that my skin, especially where it came into contact with his hand, was more sensitive. While it was a gratifying new experience, I felt perturbed by the question of whether I was aroused by Dave or by my own body.

I also felt his impatience to have his old body back. It was not fair to make him wait just because I was having fun.

I looked at the ring and noticed that it was no longer as bright as before. Only a small part of it was glowing when light shone on it, while the rest of the stone looked quite dull.

Still holding Dave's hand in mine, I pushed the stone back to its initial position and braced myself for the jarring effect it had had last time.