"Oh,
good luck then." Warning bells were still ringing in Gloria's
head but she could not identify the danger.
"Before
I go, there's something that's been bothering me."
"Oh?"
Gloria uttered cautiously.
"I'm
curious about what's happened to you."
"What
do you mean?" Gloria asked blankly.
"You
fell from the bridge. Yeah, trauma can mess with a person's memory.
But your whole personality's changed too."
"Yes,
I did fall from the bridge," Gloria confirmed.
"Okay,
here's the thing." The woman twisted in her stool to face
Gloria. "Everything points to you being Annie - your
fingerprints and DNA matched. But somehow, something tells me you're
not Annie. You're not even reacting to me now the same way Annie
does."
Gloria
bit her lip. It was true that she was not Annie. However, before her
was a person she had barely known at school confronting her about it.
She still felt uncomfortable with the other person's presence. She
wished she had some time to poke through Annie's memories for more
details.
"You
tested my fingerprints and even my DNA?" Gloria asked.
Selina
nodded.
"Why?"
Selina
glanced back to see the boy running the drink stand busy with a
customer. "Trade my secret for yours?" she offered.
"What
kind of secret do you have?" Gloria asked.
"I'm
really twenty-one."
"Really?"
"See,
I've already got my wisdom teeth." Selina opened her mouth and
pointed inside. "You don't get your wisdom teeth until you are
seventeen."
"So
what were you doing in Fernham High?" Gloria asked.
"That's
the secret I'll trade for yours."
Gloria
took a deep breath. "Okay. So, what do you want to know?"
"Are
you really Annie Billings?"
Gloria
stared at Selina for a moment. "I'm not Annie Billings,"
she admitted. "I'm actually Gloria."
"I
guessed that much. But isn't 'Gloria' Annie's middle name?"
"That's
the name I use." Gloria took a look to see that her belongings
were still where she had left them on the beach. "I don't really
know who I am."
"You
don't?"
Gloria
shook her head. "No. I don't have my previous life's memories."
"If
you're not Annie, you'd have trouble adjusting to her life if you
didn't know anything," Selina pointed out.
"I
did have a little trouble," Gloria admitted, "Though not as
much since I've Annie's memories. They were a little help, sometimes
- if I can find what I'm looking for."
"Can
you explain how your fingerprints and DNA matches Annie's?"
Blue
eyes flicked to Selina. "How did you get my DNA?"
"Hair
sample from your schoolbag. I compared that to a sample I took from
Annie before the accident. So how did you fool DNA?"
"That's
because this really is Annie's body," Gloria explained, "My
soul got switched with Annie's."
"Does
such technology exist?"
"Um,
no. It was done supernaturally."
Selina
looked at her closely. "What do you mean?"
"When
Annie threw herself from the bridge..." Gloria began.
"So
Annie really did commit suicide."
"Um,
yeah," Gloria confirmed, "Anyway, when she fell from the
bridge, her soul was collected. But when she survived, a soul was
replaced - mine."
"How
could that have happened?"
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