Maximoff Anomalies

Billy I

"Tommy!"

Billy blinked, squeezing his eyes together and glancing around frantically. He was lying on a stretcher in an ambulance while a doctor tended to him. A breathing machine was covering his mouth, and a girl with long dark hair sat on his other side, her hand wrapped tightly around his and tearstains down her cheeks. Why was she there? Where was Tommy?

A small bright light flashed in front of his eyes, and the doctor leaned down to look at him. "Can you say your name?" he asked. Billy tried, but his mouth felt like sandpaper, and he shook his head. "Do you know where you are? Do you remember what happened?"

Billy turned to look past the girl at the reflection in the window. A teenage boy stared back at him. The boy hair curly dark brown hair, and the left side of his face was covered in blood.

Was that him? Why did he look like that? What happened?

Days later, Billy was still asking that question.

The girl called him Charlie. That was his name, apparently. Charlie Spring. The girl had been driving them to school when another car swerved into their way and the two crashed into a tree.

Billy knew a surprising amount about Charlie Spring. He was fifteen, lived in Kent in the UK, played the drums, was a rugby reserve, and had spent his Year 9 getting bullied for daring to be gay at an all-boys school called Truham. He was dating Nick Nelson, who was only recently out. He is sympathetic, kind, and genuinely a good person. Charlie had an older sister called Tori, short for Victoria, and parents called Jane and Julio Spring. Charlie was short for Charles. But what Billy didn't understand is why Charlie was him.

The doctors called it amnesia. Last time Billy checked, amnesia didn't mean being forced into the body of someone five years older than you. More than five years, given Billy's tendency to age himself up. He still had Charlie's semantic memory, which would be helpful for school. Which is apparently somewhere he would be forced to go.

Billy had met Charlie's friends on Day Two of Being Charlie. There was Tao Xu, who was a protective and loud Chinese boy, Isaac Henderson, a kind, introverted, bookworm, Elle Argent, a creative and kind girl, Darcy Olsson, a chaotic and extroverted girl, Tara Jones, a clever and quiet girl, Imogen Heaney, a bubbly and sweet girl, and Sahar Zahid, who was an ambitious and intelligent girl.

Then there was Nick Nelson. He was a golden retriever, as far as Billy could tell. He liked Charlie a lot, and it was really obvious. If Billy hadn't been told, he still would've figured it out. How they managed to last months without being discovered was beyond him.

Their expressions flickered and crumbled every time Billy shook his head that no, he still didn't remember. Nick seemed heartbroken, and Billy could understand. He'd only been out for a few weeks, and now his boyfriend is gone. Doesn't remember him. What was almost worst was their thoughts.

Billy had been able to hear the thoughts of everyone in Westview since his dad almost died on Halloween. The buzz was quieter in Kent, he couldn't hear everyone. It seemed to limit itself to the people in the room unless he tried to stretch further. Charlie's friends' ran through all of the memories so quickly he couldn't focus on one before it was gone.

"I'm sorry," Billy folded into himself.

Nick smiled sadly. "It's okay. It's not your fault," he reassured him.

But it was. If it wasn't for Billy, maybe Charlie would be alive. Or maybe they would be free to grieve if Charlie had died. Instead, Billy is in his place, and they have to be tortured with someone replacing Charlie.

Billy spent the next few days in the hospital, and Nick visited everyday. He could barely get himself to eat, but Nick was apparently used to that and would help him. It made Billy wonder if there was something Charlie's boyfriend wasn't telling him.

Slowly, Nick and Tori helped him come up with a guide to Charlie's life. A notebook of all his friends, people to avoid like the plague, teachers, and little quirks that Charlie apparently had. None of it was triggering anything. The doctors think the amnesia will repair on it's own, but Billy knows better. Charlie is gone. If he wasn't, Billy wouldn't be here.

On Day Five, Billy was discharged from the hospital. The drive was awkwardly silent, but Charlie's parents' thoughts were anything but. Billy enjoyed the company of Tori over anyone else's. She was quiet, and didn't seem to want to fix him like everyone else tried to.

Charlie's room was painted dark green with a single bed in the back left corner and a LED MUSIC sign on the wall above the head. Opposite the bed was a desk and a wheely chair. There was a bedside table next to the bed and a floating bookcase above it. and a drum set in the corner. On the right side was a double-doored closet and a dresser, along with a drum set next to the bedside table.

It was strange, seeing the person that Charlie used to be. The person that Billy had taken away. He could see Charlie's whole life in the photos and memories around the room.

Billy forced himself to look in the mirror at Charlie Spring. Everyone Billy ever knew was gone. Mum was gone, Dad was gone, Tommy was gone. Billy was all alone. There was no one left except him. It wasn't fair.

Charlie had been taken, and for some reason, Billy was him now. Charlie had a life, and Billy had taken over. He had to make do with what had been given.

Billy Maximoff was gone, like he never existed. There was only Charlie Spring. He was just going to have to deal with that.

"I am Charlie Spring," Charlie whispered, and the remains of Billy Maximoff vanished to the back of his mind