The World Through Various Eyes

[23] Blood and Hatred (Alex's POV)

I collapsed to the ground, my long brown hair draping itself on the ground in a heap, and my limbs sprawling out pathetically. Blood spat out of my mouth as I wheezed, straining for breath and no doubt damaging my vocal cords in the process. Everything seemed to be spinning, and I caught sight of the crimson hue of the blood to my right, which had settled into a scattering of droplets.

Pulse beating furiously. Heart pounding out of my chest as it lay against the abrasive pavement. Something wasn't right. This wasn't normal, for anyone.

The world shifted before my very eyes, blurring and coming into focus, then blurring again. In front of me lay Jade's glasses, with some of the black paint chipped off and revealing the metal underneath. I swung my arm forward in an attempt to reach them, but this only resulted in fresh cuts on my hand and forearm.

"Damn it." I managed to curse under my breath, ignoring the feel of the gravel as it scratched at my skin.

Delicate flakes of white began to fall all around me, settling down in the locks which lay before me as well as melting on my body. I pulled myself up with the aid of a nearby pole and put on the pair of glasses.

I assessed my surroundings once all was clear again. From the sky, snow continued to fall. Was it winter already? Taking out Jade's phone from her jacket's pocket, I went to the lock screen and checked.

3:46 pm- December 12th, 2013

My sore hand, covered in blood spots, stashed the mobile into the pocket from which it came. The palms still ached, and I tried not to remember the blood I had just coughed up minutes earlier. I knew that my hands had been cut up by my fall to the pavement, but what had caused my fall in the first place? I knew that I had felt dizzy, and nauseous, but why? This sort of stuff had never happened to me before. Not once, including that summer I became so sick that I had to be taken to the emergency room due to lack of health insurance.

When I had fallen to the ground, it felt like a complete and utter loss of control. All ability to remain upright and in motion were lost, resulting in me landing on the pavement rather ungracefully. Bare trees and cars with windshields caked in frost shifted in front of me.

Bitter winter air whipped at my motionless body as I struggled to figure out what had just happened.

In retrospect, standing there and gripping a pole for support, I still couldn't figure out what had caused it. I took in the brisk air with a deep breath as I eased away from the pole and began to take small steps, testing to make sure that I wouldn't fall again. My head was throbbing, and I could hear it in my eardrums, but I kept going.

I had no definite destination- just being able to stay vertical was good enough for me, thank you very much.

I couldn't believe it was winter already, but at the same time, I couldn't believe that we weren't further into the year. Ever since Jade and I had undergone the "switch", things had changed in a way I could not have ever imagined. My mind was opening up to new possibilities that I may not have ever considered before, and I could finally see the good parts of life that I had been blind to previously. Blind to out of pessimism, or out of anger at the world, or maybe, both.

This was where the perks of our switch ended, though. Countless nights of insomnia in Jade's house led to anxiety, and whenever her mom would ask what the matter was with me, I had no option of telling her. Keeping such a bizarre secret began to break me from within, until it colored Jade's life negatively. I feared that I would destroy her relationship with her mom, all because of my angst.

She didn't deserve this; I didn't deserve this! How had this happened? One day I fall asleep and the next I'm in my best friends' body? I was going insane, I was sure of it. But if that were true, she would not have been experiencing the same thing. Or possibly, I was just imagining it. This could all have been a dream. A very elaborate and extremely complex dream, but a dream nonetheless.