The Mysterious Case of Luna Summers

Chapter 1

I hardly felt it happen. 

I hadn't been completely asleep as I laid curled up underneath my layers of blankets. My nightlight that I had had since childhood glowed in the darkness, and the sweet scent of vanilla hung in the air from my recently blown out candle. My long, dark hair was frayed out onto my pillow and my cheek rested on its silk case. I listened to the quiet purring of my cat while she slept by my feet and my eyes had finally fluttered to what I thought was sleep. 

My spirit felt heavy inside of my body and that's the only way I can explain it. For a split second, it felt like I was tilting off of the edge of a cliff, just seconds away from a cruel death. I was struggling to keep balance, and suddenly it seemed as though my entire body had plummeted off. I was falling deeper and deeper, but when my eyes refused to open I assumed I was dreaming, but I was wrong. With my heart beating wildyly in my chest, my eyes finally flashed open; but the body I was in was no longer my own. 

And here is where it begins.

* 

My eyes opened and met bright light being poured in from a window to my left. I thought my window was on the opposite side of me. A woman was standing there, and when she realized I was awake she turned to look at me. She was very beautiful, but at the same time she was worn with age. She looked nothing like my mother, or even any aunt of mine. The rays of sunshine from the morning sun gave her a halo effect. I had never seen her before, but with a gentle grin her eyes met mine. 

"Bryce," She teased. "You'll be late if you don't get up now." 

I sat up and it felt like my head was teetering off of my neck. Bryce? Who was that? 

The woman's face twisted with worry and she came closer towards me. "Are you okay?" She asked as she sat down on the bed and put a soft hand onto my forehead. "You look a little ill." 

"I'm fine," I managed,but I nearly choked when the voice that spoke was not mine. 

The woman didn't look reassured as she removed her hand, "If you insist," She sat up from the edge of the bed which had a large, ugly green quilt on it. "Hurry up for school, you won't be late if you hurry." 

I nodded, but I didn't get out of bed. Wasn't it too late to get ready for school? It looked as though it was about 8 or 9 in the morning. I watched the woman leave. She was dressed in what looked like a businesswoman's outfit, with a knee length tweed skirt and blouse. Her brown hair was in tight curls and they bobbed when she walked. 

"Mom?" I dared to ask. 

The woman turned around. "Yes?" 

My heart was racing so fast it began to ache in my chest. "Nevermind." 

The woman smiled thoughtfully, and quietly shut the door on her way out. What had happened to me? My name was not Bryce, and that woman was not my mother. I am Luna Summers, not Bryce. I do not have a room that is littered with magazines, tissues, and balled up clothes. My bed does not have a vomit green quilt, and my windows are not draped with Marvel curtains. I do not have an extremely expensive looking guitar, and I do not have all of these band posters that are nearly peeling off the wall. 

I felt like I was going to be sick. 

I hopped out of the strange bed, and ran over to a small mirror that hung near the door. I almost fainted at what I had saw. 

To explain my suddenly masculine, deep voice, I was a teenage boy; a handsome one at that. How could that be? On my head, I now had long, run-your-hands-through, light brown hair with bangs that barely missed my eyes and a smile that was duplicate to the woman who had just left the room. My eyelashes were long for a boy's, but my face was certainly not boyish at all. 

My name is Luna, but somehow this is Bryce. 

I'm in his body? 

I moved away from the mirror and leaned against the dark blue wall. Baffled, I buried my hands into my face, and wondered if maybe I was dreaming. Could it be that I had been Bryce this entire time? Maybe I had a slight case of amnesia? Or maybe this is a nightmare? Am I really Bryce? Is he, or I, or we, going insnae? Were there ever any cases of people ending up in a different person's body? If this was Bryce's body, who was in mine? 

I pulled at the longish hair on my head with frustration and groaned. There had to be some sort of explanation for this. 

"Bryce!" The mother called from downstairs. She sounded impatient, but not in a harsh way. 

In a fog, I scrambled to get ready for school, something at least I, Luna, knew how to do. I hurriedly picked any shirt from the drawer as I assumed any other boy would do, and I tugged on some jeans. I refused to change the boxers, since I knew for a fact that this wasn't my body, but a stranger's, and it was just awkward to pry at his private parts. 

I quickly brushed out my hair, and then dashed out of my room. My room? Bryce's room? The room? It almost felt like getting ready back at home with my older sister, Claire, except here it was an entirely different house. This home was an apartment for just two people, and I assumed that Bryce did not have any siblings. As I had hoped, his mother did not start any conversation that I'd be confused about and she went about getting ready for her work.

I sipped on the coffee she had handed me carefully, and poured my own cereal. This was strange, this was very very strange. The apartment was very tidy compared to Bryce's room, and simplistic art hung on the walls. The decor was mainly white and I began to wonder if this family had any pets when I spotted a few fish swimming in a fish bowl. 

"Interesting," I muttered under my breath as I took another gulp of the coffee. 

What exactly is a girl in my position to do? Awkwardly, I shifted in my seat for reasons I'd like to say involved Bryce's unmentionables, and I got up to wash dishes. Why had this happened to me exactly? I wasn't sure if I was dreaming yet, but this could've been very close to it. I was unusually content, and the panic attacks I had expected from waking up with green eyes instead of brown hadn't come. It was strange indeed. 

I heard heels clicking down the hallway, but they stopped at the edge of the kitchen. 

"Bryce," The mother asked, shock dripping from her voice. "Are you doing your dishes?" 

I glanced at her with wide eyes and uncertainty as I set my bowl from the cereal into the dish-drainer. Was I not supposed to? Was this something Bryce didn't do? Hell, was I already looking suspicious? 

To my relief, the mother burst into a sunny smile and hurried over to give me a quick hug. "After bugging you for weeks, you finally let in." 

Nervously, I returned her smile and stuttered:  "I.. I decided I should help more," 

She held her hands onto my shoulders and gave them a squeeze. "I'm proud of you." 

She kissed me on the forehead and scampered off to go find her purse. I swayed idley in the kitchen. My sneakers were on, my backpack with complete homework was swung around my shoulder, and I was still utterly confused. The body I was in couldn't have been my original one. I had thousands of memories from back home, like the time my best friend, Monica, led me into a moshpit at a concert and the time Alan Jacobs broke my heart in 4th grade. 

The skin I'm in, isn't mine. I thought, as I needed to steady myself onto the counter. 

The entire world felt like it was turning around me, and my stomach was twisting and turning. I let out a moan, and got sick on the counter. I wanted to cry but the tears wouldn't come. My hands, Bryce's hands, began shaking and the last thing I saw was his mother rushing toward me. 

Then it was black again.