Chapter XXIV Part II

When Vinny pulled the car into Rina’s driveway, he couldn’t help but to marvel at how plain her house was. There were no decorations for the holiday hung outside and the color scheme was just a simple white and gray. If it wasn’t his destination, he would never have paid it a single thought. There weren’t any cars in the driveway, convincing him that Rina hadn’t lied on the phone that her parents really weren’t home. He would have plenty of privacy to break her and leave her so terrified of him that she would never even think about going near Alice again. To him, Rina Davens was utterly pathetic—a waste of space in their quaint little town. At least Evan was upfront about it. Vinny might despise the guy, but he could at least respect the fact that he owned up to his actions. Rina was a guilty, lying little bitch who denied all involvement and tried to set her boyfriend on Jay after lying about him. She was a coward and a bully and so, he had no qualms about what he was about to do. Those feelings were only intensified by the knowledge that she used to be Alice’s friend. She betrayed Alice, so she was bringing it on herself.

Vinny grimaced, once again noticing just how uncomfortable he felt in Evan’s body. Initially, he had believed it was just a psychological reaction to being in the body of somebody he hated so much, however, he was now realizing that wasn’t the case. There was something wrong with Evan physically, and Vinny wasn’t sure why that was or what was causing it. Had he not been in such a rush, he might have tried to figure out what was wrong, but he had more important matters to deal with.

Glancing once more in the rearview mirror of Evan’s car to make sure he looked like everything was normal, he then pushed open the door and stepped out into the snow. Rina lived on the opposite side of town, closer to the coast, so he had been forced to go to Evan’s house and swipe his car, finding himself lucky that the boy’s keys were in his bag. Confident that everything would go as planned, Vinny closed the car door and made his way up the driveway and to the house’s porch. He rapped his knuckles on the door a few times and then stepped back, sticking his hands in the pockets of his uniform so he could wrap his left fingers around The Switch. Moments later, the door opened.

He did everything he could not to scowl. Rina stood before him, still dressed in her school uniform with her hair tied up in a ponytail, smiling like she was happy to see him. It was such a jarring expression since she had only ever sneered and scowled at him in the past. Just the fact that she was happy to see a scumfuck like Evan Wright was enough to convince him that she was pathetic.

“Hey, Evan,” she greeted, albeit a little hesitant. “Come on in.”

“Sup,” he grunted, mimicking Evan’s usual tone. “How’s it goin’, Rina?”

When he walked into her house, he found the entry room to be as bland as the rest of the house. Aside from a few pictures hanging on the wall depicting a young Rina and her family, there was hardly any decor at all.

“It’s going okay,” she replied, a brief flash of nervousness going across her features. “Um, I guess you probably wanted to talk about the whole thing with Jay earlier but, I swear to god that I didn’t believe him when he said you were talking about me.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Vinny replied, deciding just to go along with her so as to not arouse suspicion.

The girl moved to lead him further into the house and he went to follow when suddenly, his eyes were drawn to one of the pictures on the wall. It displayed four young children in swimsuits at some public pool. The kids were all around six years old and yet he found that he instantly recognized three of them. It was Jay, Rina, Alice, and some other girl that Vinny had never heard any of them mention.

Fucking bitch, he thought with a pang of fury. You have the gall to go after Alice while still keeping a picture of her up in your house? How disgusting can you be?

He turned and followed after Rina, making a mental note to ask Jay about the third girl when he got a chance. Rina’s main living room was nothing special either. There were two couches and a television mounted to the wall with a kitchen connected to the opposite side. At the very least, there was a Christmas tree up in the corner, though the decorations on it were boring white lights and a few bulbs. He didn’t even see any stockings hanging anywhere.

I can’t tell if she celebrates Christmas or not, he thought.

“So?” Rina asked softly, turning back to face him. “You want to sit down or—”

“No, I’m fine,” he interrupted, clutching the gem in his pocket as he prepared to make his move. He slowly took a step toward her, knowing he would need to cross the few feet to her in an instant before she could react. “Actually, Rina...I’m not here to talk about Brooks.”

She cocked her head in surprise. “What do you mean? What else would you be…?”

He didn’t let her finish before he pushed off the ground with his right foot, darting toward her and, before she could react, he placed his right hand over her eyes and used his left hand to press the gem into her hand. As he expected, he was immediately thrown into the formless world of white but, having swapped plenty of times in the past four months, he was used to it. He was prepared for when he returned to Rina’s living room to find his vision dark from Evan’s hand over his eyes. He reacted instantly, yanking the stone from her grip and shoving it into his skirt pocket. Then, without even taking the time to think about his new body, he grabbed Rina’s shoulders and jammed his knee into her stomach. The girl, now in Evan’s body, immediately dropped to the ground with a grunt, her hand falling from Vinny’s face and giving him the chance to get his bearings.

He was now where Rina had been standing moments earlier and, once he looked down at his body, he knew as a fact that the swap had been a success. Even having prepared himself mentally for it, having now actually experienced what it felt like to swap bodies with a girl, he realized just how strange of a feeling it actually was. His body was far smaller and lighter while his skin felt softer. He was no longer wearing pants but a short skirt that went down to his knees. However, knowing he had other matters to attend to, he forced the foreign feelings from his mind and turned to look down at Rina, groaning on the ground as she clutched her stomach.

“Look up,” he commanded, the higher octave of his voice throwing him off for just a brief second. “Look at me, Davens.”

“Ev… Wha?”

Seeming to be trying to breathe, Rina lifted her head and stared up at him. The look of horror and surprise was very similar to the one he had received from Evan nearly a half hour earlier and he took as much joy in it this time as he did the first. Vinny couldn’t help but to laugh as she wordlessly opened and closed her mouth.

“You’re not hallucinating,” he said sharply. “Nor is this a dream. What you’re looking at is your own body, which I stole. And if you look down, you’ll see that you’re in Evan’s body. It’s all very much real.”

“I don’t…” she sputtered.

However, upon hearing her own voice, Rina’s hand immediately went to her throat. When she strained to look down at her body, Vinny could only imagine the terror going through her mind. She was, after all, in the body of a disgusting human being.

“For the record, I’m not Evan Wright,” Vinny continued. “I’m somebody else, though I’m not telling you who. Although, given that I’ve just used magic on you, it shouldn’t be hard to narrow down the list of suspects.”

At his words, her head snapped up again, her eyes wide as his words processed in her mind. The pain from getting kneed in the gut seemed to have eased up as her next words came out far clearer than before.

“The Magic Club?” she breathed.

Vinny laughed mirthlessly. “Bingo. Again though, you don’t need to know which member I am. Just that I’m one of them. And with that in mind, it’s probably clear what I want.”

There was recognition in her eyes. Even as she tried desperately to understand what he was doing, she was still able to piece together the reason he was there to torment her.

“Alice…” she stuttered. “This is about Alice, isn’t it?”

He nodded. “Obviously.”

“I’ll stop!” she shrieked desperately, pressing her head down into the ground as if trying to bow to him. “I swear to god, I’ll stop! I won’t go near Alice ever again! I promise! I didn’t want to hurt her in the first place, but Evan...he convinced me to do it! He said she deserved it and that it would hurt Vinny Mickelson, too! He told me it would be funny to see them so panicked and angry! I knew Alice wasn’t bad, but...I just… I wanted to…”

Vinny stared down at her with a wicked smile on his face. He genuinely believed her. The tone of her voice made it sound like she couldn’t be lying. It was too full of fear. Her account of what Evan said was something that didn’t surprise him. She really was a pathetic pawn in it all, but that didn’t change anything. She still did it and the fact that she knew it was wrong made her even worse. She went after an old friend of hers knowing full well it was wrong. Yet, looking at her, he couldn’t help but to laugh once more. After all, he was watching the body of Evan Wright groveling before him, desperate and scared. How could he not feel on top of the world?

“I won’t...hurt Alice again. I promise! Just don’t leave me stuck like this!” she pleaded. “I promise…”

Vinny narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue. “Well, of course you say that now when I’ve already got your body. But who’s to say you keep that promise once I’ve left? Who’s to say you’re not lying through your teeth just to get me to go away?”

“I’m not! I promise!” she insisted.

Most of him believed her, but he knew he couldn’t take any risks. He needed confirmation that she would stay as far away from Alice and the others no matter what. So, even though he knew the other members would be furious if they found out what he intended to do, he was determined to do it anyway.

What they don’t know can’t hurt them.

Keeping his eyes fixated on her, he reached one of his hands into the pocket without the stone and took hold of her phone. When he pulled it out, he found that it was password protected but also had a fingerprint lock.

Well, good thing that’s not a problem for me.

He pressed his thumb against it, scowling at his long, painted red nail, and unlocked the phone before booting up her camera. When he didn’t speak, she slowly raised her head to stare at him, her brow furrowed.

“Wha-what are you doing?” she uttered.

He glanced down at her and smirked. Then, he set the phone down on the top of the couch and reached both hands up to the tie of her uniform, undoing it and pulling it off in one swift motion.

“Wait…” she protested weakly.

Again, he ignored her, sliding free of his light gray blazer before immediately going for the top buttons of his white dress shirt.

“Hold on a second, what are you doing?” Rina repeated.

Vinny shrugged, then glanced back down at her with a cocky grin.

“Well, I thought I’d take a few pictures,” he replied casually. “That way, I always have something on me I can send out if you decide to go back on your promise.”

“Wait, no!” she shouted, slowly rising to her feet.

Not bothering to hesitate, knowing that he could do whatever he pleased as long as she didn’t know who he was, he sent her toppling back to the ground with a swift kick to her nose. Her head snapped backwards and she hit the carpet with a cry of pain. Since she was in Evan’s body and he was in hers, he was significantly weaker than her now. If she tried to stop him, she would probably be able to. Therefore, it was in his best interests to keep her on the ground where she could only groan.

“You… Please,” she uttered. “I’m sorry. I really...am.”

For a second, as she looked up at him with those wide, pitiful eyes, he felt a twinge of guilt despite having already convinced himself that he was doing what he needed to do. But, he could only shake his head. He needed something that would keep Rina away from the club. If he didn’t do something horrible enough to scare her out of her wits then he was wasting his time.

Yeah, I’m a monster. I’ve known this for years. Being with Eric let me forget it for a time, but it’s still in my nature. To protect the people I care about from scum like her, I’ll throw myself into hell without batting an eye. I know the others would never like this, but that’s why I’m the one who has to do it.

“It was just one locker!” she suddenly shrieked when he didn’t respond. “I busted one locker! Evan ruined the desk! I don’t...I don’t deserve this! Please!”

That time, he couldn’t help but to turn a furious glare upon her.

“Just one locker?” he breathed. “And the death threats you’ve been sending her? What about those?”

Her eyes somehow grew even wider at his words. “Death threats? I…? No! I didn’t! I…”

“So you didn’t write ‘kill yourself, slut’ on her locker?” he growled.

“I…” He could see the pain in her eyes as she fell silent and he reveled in it.

“I thought so.”

She just sat there, still, staring down at the ground and seeming like she was trying not to cry as he removed her clothes and stripped down to nothing. As each second passed, he expected her to try and stop him, but she seemed far too terrified to act. Instead, she remained motionless as he took the pictures he needed. When he finished, he sent them to his phone, deleted the message, and then tossed Rina’s phone across the room.

“There,” he said simply. “I have them now. If you so much as breathe on Alice or any of the club members, I’ll send those out to the entire damn school. We’ll see who everybody thinks is a slut then. We’ll see how funny it is to be the one being sneered and laughed at. You hear me?”

She nodded meekly. “I do.”

“Good. Then we’re done here,” he whispered. “Close your eyes right now.”

She flinched at his order but, much to his pleasure, she did as he ordered. He didn’t bother putting her clothes back on. Instead, he reached into her skirt pocket and removed the gem before walking over to where she still crouched and pressing it against her neck. The world of white reclaimed his mind for those brief few seconds and, before he knew it, he was the one crouched on the ground. He could feel tears formed in his eyes as he quickly reached up and yanked the stone from Rina’s hand before she knew what had happened. When he rose, she had already jumped away from him, trying desperately to cover what she could with her hands.

“Glad we’ve come to an understanding,” he growled, before turning and walking back toward the front entrance. She never spoke another word nor did he want her to. He wanted her to quietly think about the situation she had gotten herself in.

When he arrived back in the car, he sat down in the driver's seat and sighed, irritated by the return of that uncomfortable sensation now that he was back as Evan. He furrowed his brow and, rather than getting ready to meet back up with Jay and reclaim his own body, he looked around the car. He recalled Eric saying something about the gem giving the user some implicit knowledge that belonged to the body rather than the consciousness. He was hoping it was something he might be able to use on command and, much to his surprise, he found himself drawn to a locked glove compartment just underneath the passenger's side. Allowing his instincts to take him where he needed, he took his keys from his pocket and inserted one of the smallest ones into the keyhole. Both surprisingly and unsurprisingly, it popped open with ease and, laying inside, was something that he found himself staring at for a moment.

There was something tucked deep in the back, probably put there by Evan to hide from his parents.

It was then that he realized he was laughing. There was something so amusing to him about the fact that the gem led him right where he needed to be, like it was guiding him to his goal. It was almost too perfect.

Oh Evan...you’re so fucked.

***

The previous day had been so stressful for Lilly that she found herself utterly exhausted on the following morning when she arrived at school. She, Eric, and Damien had spent much of the afternoon searching for Vinny but, after a few hours of looking, they were forced to stop because of how dark it got. They tried calling him numerous times but he never answered nor did he reply to the barrage of texts they sent his way. Jay had been ignoring them, too, and so, they did their best to think of places they might have gone. Damien went to Vinny’s house to look for him while Eric and Lilly checked Ralph’s Diner where Alice worked and Vinny now frequented. Yet, no matter how much they tried, they still came up short and Lilly was forced to return home having to accept that they would just have to talk to Vinny the following morning in first period.

Having reached no resolution to the problem, Lilly spent most of the night stressing over what Vinny could possibly be doing with the stone to Rina and Evan. She knew he intended to use it against them in an effort to stop them from going after Alice, but she had no idea what he was actually going to do. In the past, she might have been calmer about the situation and trusted Vinny’s judgment but, in the past few days, she had begun to see a darker side of him that she never knew existed and it made her worry about what he might be capable of.

Then there was the situation with Liz to consider. Despite Eric and Damien both making it clear that they did not want to use the stone to solve the problem, she ignored them, stole it, and gave it to Vinny anyway. Damien refused to talk about it during their hunt but she could tell it was eating away at him. He must have been certain that Liz was on his side so Lilly could only imagine what internal conflicts he was going through. Even she couldn’t say for certain what she thought of Liz’s actions. The only thing she knew for certain was that, like Vinny, she thought she was doing the right thing. Whatever Vinny and Liz did, it was with the intention of helping Alice get through this.

Lilly sighed, returning from her thoughts and to the present where she was sitting at the desk beside Eric in Mrs. Kentz’s classroom. School wasn’t going to start for another twenty minutes, but she knew Vinny liked to show up early. He could arrive at any minute and both were prepared to demand to know what happened when he finally entered that room. What made her anxiety even worse was that, when she looked around, there was no sign of Alice or even Evan in the back corner where Brad and his friends were sitting. The boy always showed up with Brad and the others so his absence given the previous day’s circumstances was unsettling. She couldn’t help but to tap her foot in impatience.

“Do not worry, Lilly,” Eric said softly, his eyes focused on the surface of his desk. “Everything is going to be fine. Vinny will show up. We just have to wait.”

She grimaced, leaning back in the seat but never taking her attention off the door.

“How can you be so calm about this, Eric?” she asked. “Vinny stole the gem and ran. Who knows what he did to Evan or Rina. I mean, we know we can’t trust them. If he used the stone on either of them then we now have to put up with the fact that they’ll know and could probably be coming after us for revenge. How are we supposed to deal with that?”

The boy shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t think it’ll come to that. Vinny might have stolen the stone but he’s not a fool. He’ll cover his bases. I can’t say for certain what he did but I trust him enough to believe that it won’t be stupid.”

“You’re too laid back,” she grumbled. “Does anything ever worry you?”

He laughed. “Of course it does. I’m only human, after all. The only difference between you and me is that I’m better at hiding my fear than you are—a skill that is not necessarily something I should brag about.”

She frowned, wondering what could possibly bother somebody as confident and cheerful as him but, before she could ask him anything, the door swung open. She instantly sat up, desperately hoping it would be Vinny walking into the room. Yet, when she saw the two who were entering, she exhaled in surprise. Vinny was walking hand-in-hand with Alice who, despite everything that had been going on, was smiling.

Lilly could hear Eric sit up and fold his hands across the desk and she figured he was waiting for the two to make their way over. Lilly knew she should rely on Eric and let him deal with it so she looked at him to gauge what he might do, when she found herself taken aback for the second time in only a few seconds. Eric’s eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open slightly as he regarded the two. It was such a stark shift from his casual tone mere seconds earlier that Lilly feared she was missing something.

“Eric?” she whispered.

But he ignored her, instead jumping to his feet and facing Vinny with a fearful expression. When Lilly managed to look away from him and to the newcomers, she saw Alice heading toward her normal desk while Vinny was making his way toward Eric. Neither boy said anything to the other. Eric still seemed too stunned to talk while Vinny didn’t seem to have any interest in doing so. The blonde boy merely reached into the pocket of his uniform and produced the small, orange gemstone. Then, he placed it on the desk’s surface, nodded to the two of them, and made his way toward where Alice was already taking her seat in the corner of the room. Both Lilly and Eric watched him move away but neither made any move to stop him. Eric swiftly scooped up the gem and pocketed before any of the boys in the back noticed it.

“Eric,” Lilly said, in a sharper tone. “What’s wrong?”

Without replying, the boy flopped down into the chair and exhaled softly, looking suddenly exhausted, his brow furrowed as if his mind was working into overdrive.

“What did he do?” he uttered.

Lilly clenched her teeth, leaning forward and lowering her voice.

“What are you talking about?” she urged. “What happened? What changed?”

Eric clenched his fists. “My sense.”

“What about it?!” she demanded, recalling the supposed “sixth sense” Eric had described to her a few months back.

“It’s...shifted,” he replied weakly. “Vinny...isn’t pure anymore. He did something...to taint himself. He...did something horrible enough to cause my sense to register him as a potential risk. He…”

As Eric continued to mumble, Lilly couldn’t help but feel a pit forming in her stomach. Despite the seemingly exaggerated way he was describing it, she could tell that he wasn’t screwing around. While she had never known what to make of Eric’s supposed sixth sense, she knew that he trusted in it unconditionally. So, for him to say that it was now registering Vinny as a possible risk, it meant he believed Vinny had done something he hadn't predicted—something bad.

Lilly slowly turned her head to look back at Vinny, who was chatting cheerfully with Alice as if nothing had changed. She narrowed her eyes, unable to sense anything off about him but finding herself taking Eric oddly seriously.

“Vinny,” Eric breathed, so softly that Lilly almost couldn’t hear him. “What did you do…to Evan and Rina?”