A dramatic silence settled over the inhabitants of the near deserted mall. A plastic bag rustled as the eerie breeze made its way through. All eyes fluttered between Melony’s sulking teenage form and themselves. No-one wanted to be on the end of a disadvantageous swap but no-one wanted to make the first move. Tyler clutched his wife’s hand for support. Fiona had pulled a cigarette from her bra and was lighting it tentatively. Timid Celine stood to the side whilst Bianca adjusted her glasses and sized up her options. The others were in a similar state but none dared to do anything.
Shaun this time assumed the leadership role again and beckoned for Fiona to pass over the pack of smokes. She begrudgingly obliged and they all watched as Carl took a pair of pliers from his tool belt and snipped the ends off of some of the cigs to make them all different lengths. “Hell you doing with my fags?,” Fiona whined as she puffed out a ring of smoke. Shaun gathered the cigarettes in both of his hairy paws, cradling them in a way that each tip was at the same height and the bottoms were indiscernible. He cracked a wry smile. “Anyone up for a game of straws?”
A collective groan rolled around the group. “What,” Shaun protested, “Ain’t this the fairest way to choose who gets who? Easy logic here, longest cigarette gets first pick, next longest gets second, and so on and so on.”
“I don’t want to lose my body on just a game of random chance!,” Brad yelled, “Do you know how long it took me to reach peak physical conditions?!”
“What other way do you propose, lunkhead?,” Bianca snarked.
“She’s got a point, senor. Statistically speaking, the ten of us left all have equal probabilities to be able to choose new bodies first from the options given to us.”
“What?!,” Melony squeaked. Her preppy outfit seemed horribly out of place on her gangly body and the heavy mascara she’d applied in the mall boutique hire before had run all along her acne-ridden features. “Like, what about me? I should, like, totally get another chance to pick another body!”
Carl ran down the rigid escalator at just that moment and said, “Sorry miss, but you’ve already gotten your exchange, for better or worse. Hate to say it but you’re stuck in that kid’s body until we’ve all changed and found a way to get everything back to normal.” Melony crossed her arms childishly and began to sulk again. Fiona saw Carl come down and made her way over, asking, “Did you find him? My son, any sign of where he is?” Carl hung his head low as he produced the boy’s t-shirt and jeans from behind his back. Tears welled up in Fiona’s eyes. Carl brought the woman close to his chest, cradling her weeping head in his shoulder. “There, there, we’ll find him, don’t worry.”
“Th-that bastard demon,” Fiona sobbed and spat at the same time. Carl had been thinking and said to her, “Whatever that thing was, it said something about ‘hide-and-seek’. Maybe once your son initiated the swap he was taken somewhere to ‘hide’? Whatever, what I’m trying to say is I promise you we’ll find him.” Carl escorted Fiona back to the circle where Shaun had found himself a position in the centre.
He walked around slowly, offering a cigarette one by one to everyone standing there. There was a curse from someone as they realised their cig had been completely sliced down the middle. Once everyone (excluding Melony of course) had received one, Shaun took the last for himself. “Ok,” he said, “Everyone, open your hands on three. One, two... Three!” Shaun, Scott, Carl, Bianca, Marie, Fiona, Brad, Debby, Tyler and Celine all opened their hands and exposed their metaphorical straws to the others.
But who drew the longest straw?
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