Who: Gabriel and Reagan and Nic, joined by Zan and Caius When: Morning, Wednesday June 27th Where: The Castell house, then the carnival Status: Complete
When Reagan opened her eyes, she knew something was wrong. Sure, she had plenty to drink the night before when she had dragged Caius to the carnival to have a bit of fun, but not so much that she’d end up somewhere else by the end of the night. It wasn’t just the strange, unfamiliar room that sparked the uneasy fire in her belly. It was the feel of her hair against the side of her cheek. It wasn’t her hair. Had she destroyed another witch last night? No, that couldn’t be it. Caius wouldn’t have let her wander off on her own if she’d woken up in the middle of the night again.
“What the hell,” Reagan said, pushing herself up in bed. That was when she realized she wasn’t alone. There was a man in bed with her. Zania’s boyfriend. Gabriel. “What the hell is going on!” Her voice was louder now and she yanked the blankets up to her bare chest. Not her chest. Not her hair. Not Caius. Her heart was tripping in her chest and in an attempt to get out of the bed, Reagan got tangled up on the sheets and went sprawling off the side of the mattress to the floor.
Gabriel had thoroughly enjoyed his evening with Zania at the carnival -- they’d run around like kids, they’d smoked a joint and kissed at the top of the Ferris wheel, he’d even won her a stuffed animal at one of those dumb ring toss games. Then they’d come home to hot sex and good sleep, which he was deep in the middle of when the yelling started. The alarm in Zania’s voice broke through his unconsciousness, and he was lifting his head to look at her when she tumbled off of the edge of the bed.
“Shit, baby, you ‘kay?” he mumbled as he sat up too, groggy and confused as to what was wrong. From his bed in the corner, Anubis lifted his sleek head and stared at Zania, ears perked straight up.
Reagan cursed loudly and managed to get to her feet, yanking the sheet with her. "Don't call me baby," she breathed, looking around for clothes. Oh god. This was not her body. It was... "What the fuck," she exclaimed again, still tugging and pulling to get the sheet off of the bed to keep it wrapped around her body. How had this happened? It was magic. Definitely magic. But how? And who? Where was Caius?
Eyes wide, Reagan looked over at Gabriel again. He didn't appear to be freaking out, but still. "Caius?" she whispered, just in case he was still half-asleep and not entirely sure what was actually going on.
The way Zania took the sheet with her tugged it clean off Gabriel, who had been sleeping just as naked as her, but he didn’t think a thing about it. Why would he? He was more extremely confused as to what was upsetting her. Gabriel even reached out with his senses to see if there was a spider in the bed or something, but he didn’t pick up anything insect-y. Don’t call me baby? What the hell was that about? Gabriel stared hard at her, squinting and brow furrowed, the name only contributing to his confusion. “Caius? No ...” he said slowly, with obvious concern. “What’s wrong, Zan? Did you have a bad dream or somethin’?” He moved to get up from the bed on her side, his eyes still on her. From his corner, Anubis stood up, still honed in on Zania. The doberman gave a soft whine in his throat.
Reagan stared at Gabriel and realized he wasn't Caius. But she was stuck in Zan's body? What the hell was this? A nightmare body swap, that's what. Dropping the sheet, she grabbed the nearest pillow and brought it to her face to scream into it. "I'm not Zania," she said, hitting the bed with the pillow before tossing it aside and quickly searching for a shirt to put on. She didn't care that it wasn't her body. She didn't want to stand there naked in front of a virtual stranger. "Something happened. Something. Oh my god." A curse, maybe? Because this definitely felt like a curse. Tugging open a drawer, Zania found a shirt and quickly pulled it over her head. All this hair. Gods. "I went to bed as myself and woke up here."
It was definitely all un-Zania-like behavior, and as Gabriel’s brain woke up more and started to catch up, he could sense the alarm coming off of Anubis, like there was a stranger in the room. Which was pretty crazy, because Zania was right there, only she was acting insane. Since she was frantically getting dressed, Gabriel stood and ambled over to the spot where he tended to toss his comfy clothes, and pulled on a pair of cottony lounge pants. They didn’t leave much to the imagination either, they were so soft, but it was better than naked, he supposed. “Okay ... wait, what are you saying again?” he asked, still trying to make sense of it. Gabriel moved in closer, his hands up like he meant no harm. “If you’re not Zan, who as yourself did-- Reagan?” he guessed, the possibility clicking into place from the name she’d just said. “Reagan D’Onofrio? What the fuck is this?”
Oh, right. Reagan supposed she should have mentioned that part. With a shirt on, she felt a bit better, but it was still way too intimate for her. Being bottomless while Gabriel was topless and his... lounge pants didn't hide much. She needed to focus. "Reagan Kelly," she corrected instinctively. "But yes. I have no idea why I'm waking up in Zania's body. What happened last night? Where were the two of you? Were you messing around with magic?" She hadn't performed any magic the night before. She and Caius had gone to the carnival before driving home. Reagan had seduced Caius before they had even gotten upstairs to bed. That was really all she could remember.
It was truly bizarre to be looking at his girlfriend, hearing her voice claim that she was someone else. Waking up in Zania’s body? It sounded so strange, and Gabriel had never heard of such a thing. “No, we weren’t messing around with anything,” he said, a bit more defensively than he meant to. “We went to the carnival, had a good time, then came home and went to bed.” They’d had some excellent sex, but that didn’t seem relevant to anything, they fucked all the time and it never made Zania switch bodies with anyone. There hadn’t been anything more magical about it than usual. Gabriel’s head tilted and he gave her an incredulous look, his eyes narrowing some. “Are you fuckin’ with me, Zan?” he asked, a touch of warning in his tone. “Because this ... is real weird.”
"Gods, stop calling me Zan." Reagan shivered. It wasn't that she disliked Zania. They had become... more friendly over time, now that Reagan and Caius were married. But being in the body of the woman who used to fuck her husband was torture. Not to mention the dreads and... just everything. "It is weird and it's horrifying and we need to figure out what happened and how to fix it." Reagan paused, realizing now that it's possible Zania was waking up in Reagan's body. Beside Caius. "We need to call them," she breathed, starting to search for a phone. "Caius and Zania... because if I'm in Zania's body then she's in mine and Caius..." He would know, right? He would sense it. Of course, Zania could wake up like Reagan and freak out. "We were at the carnival too, last night. Something... something had to have happened there."
Anubis was still watching Zania -- Reagan? -- warily, but he sat down again since Gabriel wasn’t freaking out about whatever was going on. Not in any obvious way, at least. It was painfully strange to see Zania tell him not to call her Zan with that bite in her tone. He reached out with his magic to tough hers, and she still felt like Zan, which made it even more confusing. It kind of made him want to yell for Nic, like the other Castell twin would instantly know if that was really his sister or not. What if it was and she’d just snapped somehow? On the other hand, Gabriel knew that all sorts of crazy shit was possible. He sat on the edge of the bed again, his expression consternated, and pointed to where Zania plugged in her phone. “Nothing seemed to happen, at the carnival,” he said, watching her move around. “Nothing weird anyway ... what did you guys do there? Don’t think we saw you ...”
Everything felt wrong. Not just the body, but the magic. She felt wrapped up in clothing that didn't belong to her, surrounded by something foreign and disconnected. "What do you think we did at a carnival?" Reagan's tone was biting but she couldn't help it. She was stressed out and facing something uncertain and terrifying. She hurried to the phone and picked it up, releasing a frustrated groan when she found it password protected. "Do you know her password?" Reagan showed Gabriel the screen. If they couldn't call they would just have to drive over to her house. Even the thought of Caius spooning Zania, or waking her up with intimacy, made her want to scream and vomit at the same time.
Gabriel did not appreciate her tone, because this was pretty fucked up on his end too, but he bit his tongue on a sharp retort. Maybe she was a bitch, but she was in Zania’s body, and Gabriel happened to value that. He didn’t want her dashing off with it all on her own, though he supposed he knew where she would go. He shook his head a little as he stood up to fetch his own phone. There was a lot of trust in his and Zan’s relationship, but they also respected each other’s privacy, so he didn’t know her code. Gabriel unlocked his screen and offered it out to her. “Just sayin’, if you think something happened at the carnival, we should retrace steps,” he told her flatly.
Reagan set Zania's phone down and took Gabriel's. Caius's phone number was the only one she knew by heart. Before she began to dial, she looked at Gabriel, finally letting it slip between her own panic that this was upsetting for him too. So she took a deep breath and tried to calm her tone. "I can't tell you everything we did step by step, but... we did the usual things. Tried out some of the games, went on some of the rides... the Funhouse and the Mirror Maze too." Reagan paused briefly. "The Mirror Maze was strange. It felt more like a Haunted House to me."
The back of Gabriel’s neck prickled when she mentioned the mirror maze. That had been the only place in the carnival he had felt really uneasy, and he’d lost track of Zania in it for a little while. She hadn’t mentioned experiencing anything weird, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t happened. “We were in the mirror maze too,” Gabriel murmured thoughtfully. He nodded toward his phone in Reagan-Zan’s hand and moved away toward the dresser to give her a little space and find a shirt. “Call your man,” he muttered, the words feeling so strange in his mouth. He was her man, but he wasn’t, at the same time. It was the inside that really counted, but it was hard to wrap his mind around the outside not matching the inside anymore. But if this was really happening, he wanted to talk to the real Zan as soon as he could.
Reagan assumed plenty of people had been in the mirror maze... but she and Zania were both witches, so maybe there was something more at play here. Something horrible and hideous, disguised as some joke. Swallowing hard, Reagan thumbed in Caius's number, hoping he would wake up and answer... or already know something was amiss and answer. If it went to voicemail, she and Gabriel were driving over there, although they should probably be doing that anyway. "Can you... find me a pair of Zania's pants?" she asked while the phone was ringing. She was covered, but she was very aware of her - Zania's - bare ass beneath the shirt.
Gabriel kind of didn’t want to do anything extra for her since she had somehow invaded his girlfriend’s body and copped an attitude about it, but he knew that was irrational and unfair. Reagan obviously didn’t want to be there in the slightest, so he doubted this was something she’d done on her own. He wordlessly went to Zania’s drawers to find where she kept her leggings, and pulled out a black pair. He tossed it toward Reagan and then headed for the door, intending to give her some privacy while she talked to Caius. Meanwhile, he could find Nic and make him aware of this fuckery.
Nic had always been the early riser in the house. He had days that he liked to sleep in and be lazy, but most of the time he was up long before anyone else. He made a pot of coffee, sometimes made breakfast, and sat at the kitchen table and read. The house was usually quiet. It was usually peaceful. Some days Bastet would curl up in his lap. This morning she was sitting on the window sill, her head up, ears at alert. He could tell something was wrong the moment the noise started upstairs, but he didn’t rush to it, sure that Zania would loop him in if necessary. He was still sitting at the kitchen table when Gabriel walked in and folded the corner to mark his page. “Everything okay?”
The instant he found Nic in the kitchen, Gabriel realized he didn’t really know how to explain any of this. It sounded insane, but ... so many other things in their lives did too, didn’t they? “No,” he answered, his brow furrowed as he looked at Nic. The guy always seemed so calm and collected, Gabriel was hoping he could bring some of that to this situation. “Uh ... there’s a problem. Either your sister has totally lost her shit, or something weird happened and she’s not ... herself. She says she’s Reagan Kelly.” He gestured for Nic to get up and come with him, though he was sure it wasn’t going to take much prompting. Maybe it was a misconception on his part about twins, but Gabriel got the feeling Nic would immediately know whether it was really Zan or not.
Nic’s brows rose in surprise and he got up from the table, eager to see what Gabriel was talking about. They’d dealt with a lot of weird shit in their lives, but he couldn’t think of any reason why Zania would claim to be Reagan Kelly. Even heavily drugged, Zania was still some version of herself. “Did something happen?” Nic asked as he followed Gabriel back towards the stairs. “Like, was she messing around with some new spell or something?” He didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but the easiest explanation was that a spell had somehow gone awry. That would also make it the easiest to fix, so he was hopeful, even if he couldn’t imagine Zania fucking up a spell that bad. She and Reagan had accidentally put a love spell on the whole town once, so he wasn’t going to write off the possibility.
Why was everyone assuming that Zania was such a noob at magic that she could just fuck up a spell so bad to do something like this? Gabriel felt irrationally irritated about it, but he knew they were totally reasonable questions. That would be where his mind leapt to as well, if he was someone else. “No, we didn’t do any magic last night,” he explained tightly as he and Nic climbed the stairs to go back to the bedroom. “We went to the carnival, then came back home and went to bed. Zan-- Reagan says her and Caius were there too last night, so I dunno what the fuck is going on.” Point Pleasant was full of fuckery even on a good day, but this one already felt incredibly personal.
“Just trying to find the connection,” Nic said. Zania herself would have been annoyed by the question, but he would have been remiss not to ask it. He cursed quietly when Gabriel said they’d both been to the carnival, really hoping that wasn’t the commonality between them because that alone wasn’t enough to go on. It would be a pain in the ass to fix this, whatever this was. He paused outside her bedroom and knocked on the door, almost calling out for her before he second guessed himself. He wasn’t going to say her name until he was sure who it was. “It’s Nic. Can we come in?”
After speaking with Caius, Reagan set the phone down and pulled on the pants that Gabriel had given her. She missed her own clothes. Her own bed and bedroom. Her own body. What the hell kind of magic was this? Pushing Zania's hair out of her face with a huff, Reagan walked over to open the bedroom door where Nic and Gabriel were waiting. Nic was more or less her friend so she didn't want to snap at him. It was just difficult to keep herself in check when she was just crawling out of her skin - Zania's skin. "Caius and Zania are on their way here. The same thing happened to her."
Gabriel’s shoulders slumped a little in relief to hear that. At least they knew where his girlfriend’s mind was and she hadn’t been scattered to the winds or anything. And she was coming to them. It was still hard to look at Zania’s face and know she wasn’t behind it. It was going to be even weirder to see her in Reagan’s body, he felt sure, so he wasn’t much looking forward to that either. “I’m gonna wait downstairs then,” he muttered. Gabriel gave a little whistle to call Anubis, who came trotting out around Reagan’s legs, having done his duty of watching the stranger-not-stranger while she was on the phone. Gabriel turned to head back down the steps to let the dog out and grab a hoodie to put on since he’d skipped the whole getting fully dressed thing.
Nic stared at Reagan, barely resisting the urge to circle her curiously or reach out and poke her. It was his sister’s body for sure, but she held herself different, like she was uncomfortable in her skin. He could feel the quiet hum of her magic and instantly knew that that was the same just in the way it reached out to his. But it wasn’t her. He could feel it in his bones, on a level that wasn’t human or magic, but something else. His soul, perhaps, didn’t recognize the one looking back at him. “That’s so weird,” he muttered, then his lips ticked up. “I’m kinda impressed. It takes some serious magic to do something like this.” He knew he shouldn’t poke fun, but he kind of wanted to see her reaction.
"Serious magic that I didn't perform," Reagan replied, trying to resist the urge to snap. It was Nic and they were on good terms. But this was a stressful situation. Not only did she feel disembodied, in a way, but the mere idea of Caius waking up next to Zania drove her crazy. Perhaps her priorities were out of whack, but Reagan didn't much care at the moment. "All four of us were at the carnival last night," she explained, calmer now that she could focus on the issue. "Not together. But Caius and I went into the Maze of Mirrors. Gabriel said he and Zania had done the same. Of course, we could have all gone on every single ride, but that place... it felt strange to me. I don't know if that has something to do with this, or if someone else out there is fucking around."
“I didn’t say you did,” Nic said, holding back his amusement. Reagan wasn’t Zania, but the fire in them was similar in nature. It made him wonder how much screaming and shouting had gone on at Reagan’s house. “I haven’t been yet, but that whole place has a pull. Lem’s been there practically every day. Might be something in a ride, a cursed object, or even a person. I’m sure you’ll figure it out, but, in the meantime, do you use glamour much?” he asked. “You’ll want to fix your eyes if you’re planning on leaving the house.” It was something Nic was used to, and he knew Zania fixed daily, much like wearing contacts, but if she didn’t correct it, then she’d look slightly demonic to everyone else. He didn’t have to say anything, but if he didn’t tell Reagan, then Zania was sure to do it herself.
"Leave the house?" Reagan sputtered. "Like this? No. And no, I don't use glamour." She didn't need it. "I'm waiting for Caius. He'll know what to do and hopefully it can be done without anyone seeing me like this." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes to try and focus. The urge to scream and throw things was so powerful. But it wasn't Nic's fault, or Gabriel's. It certainly wasn't hers, either. "Can I have some coffee?" she asked finally. "Please."
Nic couldn’t help but smirk at her response, like she was so horribly offended by the prospect of being seen looking like that. Maybe she was, but Nic could think of a lot worse things than being stuck in his sister’s body. At least they were both women. And witches. And human. The urge to fuck with her was so strong that Nic had to keep reminding himself that this was Reagan and that she would probably not find it funny later. Never mind that he could’ve made her look like herself if he wanted to… but that was just glamour, something she seemed adamantly opposed to. “There’s coffee downstairs. And breakfast,” he nodded towards the stairs. “Come on.”
Reagan didn't want magic to look like herself - she would still be in someone else's body. She wanted to be herself in her own body. Gods, what would she do when she saw Zania in her body? Her heart was beating fast now and she was trying not to lose it. She realized then that she was seeing what she assumed with Nic's aura. That was interesting. But not interesting enough to distract her from the problem at hand. Following Nic downstairs, she focused on the smell of coffee, immediately helping herself as soon as she stepped into the kitchen. "It has to be the carnival," she muttered as she poured the coffee into a mug. "It has to be. Something about that place... have you been yet?" she asked Nic.
“Not yet,” Nic said, smiling a little as he shook his head. He’d already said so less than five minutes ago, but he knew she had a lot on her mind and he didn’t have anything of value to add on that front. If Lem had noticed anything off about the place, she hadn’t mentioned it, but then her bar for weird might be pretty high. He’d have definitely noticed if someone else had woken up in her body though. “I doubt this is happening to a lot of people though. Like, if it had been anyone else but you, I’d think you’d lost your mind.” Or that Zania had, since that’s who he was looking at. “At least you’re here and not in some stranger’s house. Or some stranger’s body. Though I’m guessing it’s still strange.”
"You've got that right," Reagan muttered before sipping the coffee. It could be happening to other people, but the fact that it happened to Zania and Reagan seemed pointed. Purposeful. Leaning against the counter, she kept her eyes on Nic, deliberately ignoring the urge to look down at her body again. Zania's body. "It's just another rung on the ladder of strangeness. We've just got to fix it, preferably as soon as possible. Gods, it's going to be very odd looking at myself while not being myself." Was Caius near? She knew he had to drive from Black Cove but it felt like ages since they had hung up the phone.
Gabriel had taken Anubis out to do his business, ambling with his dog as he walked around the house and took some deep breaths. This wasn’t permanent, he told himself. They would get it fixed, and he would get his Zania back in short order. Gabriel had no idea how that was going to happen, but it would. It had to. As he was opening the front door again to go back inside, he saw a sleek black car slow down to turn into the driveway. He left the door open and walked inside enough to call into the kitchen, where he could hear Nic and Reagan talking. “They’re here.”
Caius had felt tense the entire drive, and it was giving him a headache. He tried not to speed like a demon, but he definitely didn’t follow the limits as he drove them to Ludlow. It wasn’t a neighborhood he really enjoyed visiting, and it still privately baffled him that the Castell twins chose to live there instead of Overlook or Black Cove, but that was just another thing that made them so different. He and Zania didn’t chat much, both of them seemingly aware that the smallest spark could cause a fight that neither of them needed right then. He parked the car in the house’s driveway and moved to climb out, eager to see his wife even if she looked nothing like herself.
Zania’s eyes locked onto her house as soon as it came into view, spotting Gabriel as they got closer. He had woken up with a stranger in her skin that morning and she imagined that the experience was as bad as hers had been, or even worse. At least she knew Caius and, while that hadn’t served to keep her calm this morning, she realized practically anywhere else would have been far worse. As she climbed out of the car, she had to hold herself back from running up to Gabriel and wrapping her arms around him. It might comfort her, but she recognized it would be unsettling for him. She stopped a couple feet from him, sighing heavily. “It’s me,” she said softly before her eyes flicked inside the front door. There was nothing quite as unsettling as seeing herself from another’s perspective.
As soon as Gabriel told them that Caius was there, Reagan pushed away from the counter, leaving her coffee behind to hurry outside. She ought to wait, but she couldn't. Seeing herself was jarring and Reagan paused in the doorway, trying not to panic at the sight of Zania in her body. She had to imagine it was as equally strange for Zania to see Reagan in her body. Her attention shifted to Caius and she placed her hands on her hips as if to say... So this happened.... "How was your morning?" she asked dryly.
Caius headed straight for the house, and the strangest surreal feeling washed over him when Reagan stepped out in Zania’s body. It looked like Zania pretending to be Reagan somehow, the expression on her face was familiar but still difficult to read in a way. Still, Caius walked up to wrap his arms around her. He made it a loose hug in case she didn’t want it, but it was hard to know what she was going through and not give her some comfort. “A similar shitshow to how yours is going, I’m sure,” he murmured to her. Caius kissed the side of her head before he pulled back to glance around at the others.
Zania was correct that Gabriel found all of this very unsettling. He didn’t even find Reagan all that attractive, she just looked like a cookie-cutter wealthy white woman to him. Now that he knew she was kind of a bitch under pressure, he liked her looks even less. But that wasn’t Reagan standing there, it was Zania. Gabriel noted that Caius hugged Zania’s body, so that felt like permission to do the same, and he put an arm around the brunette’s shoulders to give her a light hug. “C’mon, let’s all get inside,” he said after, moving to head to the door.
Nic stood back from the group, watching everything with a barely hidden smirk of amusement. It was horrible. He knew that. But there was something amusing about it all, so long as they got it resolved quickly. If not, it would cease to be funny within the next twenty-four hours when everyone involved reached their breaking point. He didn’t know Reagan well enough to read her tells, but he could tell Zania was already done with this madness. “Coffee?” he offered as they all filed inside and was not the least bit surprised to see Zania hurry over to make herself a cup. Even in Reagan’s body, she had her own energy about her. Not her magic, mind you, but her…soul, if he had to put a name on it. He shot her a look, a raised brow and a tilt of his head, a silent question. You okay?
Zania leaned into Gabriel’s hug, willing him to feel the spirit inside the body and not the body itself. Everything about Reagan felt different and it was amplified when being held by Gabriel. She didn’t fit against him the same way. His magic didn’t sing out to hers. It was distressing to think that it didn’t know her, but she refused to let it show. Only strong emotions for this group, though she caved to the offer of coffee. Caffeine wasn’t a cure-all, but it would certainly help her mood. She turned back towards the group once she had a cup in hand, Nic’s eye catching hers. She knew that look. “I’m fine,” she mouthed silently, followed by “Don’t laugh.” Nic took a sip of his coffee, likely to hide a smile. Asshole. “So… we all went to the carnival last night. I vote we fix this, then burn the fucker down.”
Reagan wondered how Zania and Caius had reacted to everything. There definitely had to be some panic involved but other than wanting to make sure Reagan wasn't Zania trying to trick him, Gabriel had been pretty chill. At least outwardly. Reagan picked up her coffee again, just to have something in her hands. This needed to be fixed and soon. It was killing her to know Zania was in her body with her magic. She sipped her coffee but looked over at Zania, startled again to be looking at herself. "It's possible it happened at the carnival but we don't know for sure that it was the carnival. It could have been another witch messing with us. But I think we definitely need to go back there and find out what's going on. I told Gabriel that the only place that felt really off to me was the Mirror Maze."
Caius needed some coffee in the worst way too -- he felt very awake, but he needed something to do with his hands and to occupy one of his physical senses to ground him. Everything felt too unsteady and chaotic at the moment, too backwards. Caius helped himself to a mug and filled it up, familiar enough with the Castells’ kitchen to do it for himself. “It all felt off to me, from the start,” he muttered as he turned to the others with the mug in his hand. “I didn’t notice anything special in the Mirror Maze, but that doesn’t mean much. I met the ringleader of the whole carnival the night they arrived, a man named Radley. He looked like a man, at least, but I have my doubts.” Caius took a sip, his gaze lingering on his wife’s face. Much like Nic, he could tell somehow that it was Zania behind it. It was just a sense of wrongness. “But in case it’s other witches ... anybody piss off someone powerful lately?”
“Nope,” Zania said, popping the P for emphasis. “It’s been quiet lately. Maybe too quiet. Feels like we’ve gone a long time without something big.” It wasn’t a bad thing, but she’d lived in Point Pleasant long enough to know that sometimes a trickle of incidents was easier to handle than a period of calm. Because the calm was always followed by a tidal wave. This didn’t feel like that though. As jarring as it was, the impact was too small, focused only on her and Reagan. “I didn’t feel any other witches there,” she said, now wishing she’d been a little bit less high for the majority of their stay. “The mirror maze was weird, though. It was the first thing we did and for a moment there, things were… I dunno. Creepy. I didn’t think much of it. That’s kind of the point of those places, you know? And I never saw anyone else there except us. What’s this Radley guy look like? You didn’t feel anything on him?”
Had Caius felt anything creepy in the mirror maze? Nothing stuck out in his memory beyond the general sense that the carnival was not what it seemed, but he’d had that from the start. His brow furrowed as he sipped the black coffee, his eyes unfocused for a moment. “I felt something, but it wasn’t our kind of magic,” he said. “He didn’t feel human to me. But he was tall, kind of lanky, wearing old fashioned fancy clothes ... long thin nose, big bright smile, longish curly dark hair. I don’t remember his eyes well.” Caius frowned briefly, then shook it off. He was aware that it was possible Reagan had pissed off someone powerful with all of her magic draining, but that was something for them to discuss privately. All but one of those bodies was gone now anyway, so it would be difficult for anyone to tell what happened, powerful witch or not.
Reagan knew it was possible she had pissed someone off with what she had been doing lately, but she didn't know anyone who could conceivably know what was going on besides Caius... and Westin. And maybe even Adrian Moretti, if he was the one cleaning up the mess. She eyed Caius warily, drinking some more of her coffee. They couldn't talk about such things in front of the others, but it had to be a possibility, right? "We should try to find him then," Reagan said. "We all know there's something off about the entire carnival. And who knows, we may not be the only two who swapped bodies since that thing came to town. That's as good a place to start as any."
“Let’s go then,” Zania said, ready to get moving and get her body back. They didn’t have a solid plan, but she thought that would come together once they knew more. The only way they could narrow down their options was to go to the carnival and figure out if that was the source. If not… maybe there was a location spell they could use. Except she wasn’t sure what they were trying to locate. Her body was right there. Locating it wasn’t the issue. Her brain continued to turn over options, never coming up with something that would do this exactly. The fact that her magic hadn’t gone with her stumped her the most. She finished off her coffee, then went to grab her stuff, at which point she handed Reagan her purse. She wasn’t even sure why she’d held onto it this long. “Nic—Isn’t Shane friends with a nurse at the hospital? Think he could tell us if potential psych ward patients have come in?”
“He’s probably not supposed to, but I’ll see what I can find out,” Nic said, pulling out his phone to get started down that line of thought. If this was happening to others, then it might be easier to narrow down what they all had in common. At least, in theory. Nic doubted talking to any of the others would be an easy task. Any normal, non-witchy person would probably be in hysterics by now. He thought that maybe two of the AIR group worked at the hospital, but he didn’t want to get into that here. He’d reach out and see if anyone knew anything, and to let him know if something came up. It was good to keep all options open. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”
Checking to see if anybody else in town had come down with this Freaky Friday bullshit was a good thought, but it was one Caius hardly paid attention to as he reached to take Reagan’s hand as they all started making their way outside to the cars. He needed a few moments alone with her so they could talk, no matter what she looked like. It was strange to see his wife’s body get into a car with Gabriel and Nic and know that wasn’t her, but this whole thing was weird and uncomfortable for all of them.
It wasn’t a long drive, and one of the few times Caius wished things were farther apart in this tiny town. He made sure to park close to where the rest of them had parked, his jaw clenched and his brow tensed as he climbed out of the car. The cheery colors and faint shrieks of happiness coming from inside the carnival seemed more malevolent now than they had the night before. “Follow me,” he muttered to everyone once they’d gathered, and he started striding toward the entrance, intent on going straight to Radley’s tent to demand answers.
Reagan wasn't sure what to expect. Maybe they could just walk into the Mirror Maze and things would right themselves. She doubted it would be that easy but Reagan was willing to try anything at this point. Folding her arms across Zania's breasts, Reagan avoided making eye contact with the people they were walking past. She was not in the mood to talk, especially to people who wouldn't understand that she wasn't Zania. It was still unnerving to see her body walking alongside them and now she wanted to meet Radley more than ever. He had to be powerful if he could do this kind of shit to a carnival.
The few minutes in the car with Gabriel and Nic had given Zania some much needed time to vent, feeling much more at ease now that she was with them. They didn’t know how to fix it yet, but she was confident that they would, because she wouldn’t even consider the alternative. One morning in Reagan’s body was more than enough for her. If she was going to body swap with anyone, she would have preferred it be a guy, so she could at least try out the plumbing. It was a topic that kept her car entertained until they arrived at the carnival and the seriousness of the situation set in again. She didn’t know what Radley looked like, so she was forced to follow along, but kept her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. Now would have been a good time to press her auras, but she couldn’t even begin to guide Reagan in how to use them, so she’d just have to hope something jumped out at her. A worry, since nothing had seemed too bizarre the last time she was there.
As weird as their whole situation was, Gabriel felt the pull of the carnival as they walked inside, like an excitement to be there that was disconnected from his rational mind. They weren’t there for fun, they had a serious problem, but he still wanted to have fun. It felt so weird, and made him think it came more from this place than from him. It was so strange to see Zania’s body walking ahead of them and to know she wasn’t in it, and while he definitely felt the impulse to take the real Zan’s hand, he knew how that would look to outsiders, and they were in a very public place now. Gabriel didn’t want to accidentally make trouble for Reagan and Caius. He was still going to walk beside her, though. “We’ll get it worked out,” he murmured for her ears, hating that helpless feeling that existed alongside the alien enthusiasm to be where they were.
Caius felt some of it too, the lure to explore and play games and go on rides. This place was definitely enchanted, which explained the large crowd even this early in the morning. The manipulation made him even angrier, and he didn’t give any of the workers a second glance as he strode past the Employees Only sign as they approached the group of tents and trucks clustered toward the back of the carnival. He went straight to the tent where he’d met Radley only a few nights ago. Caius pushed the flap aside and looked in ... only to find it empty. He cursed under his breath and backed up a few steps to look around. “He’s not here,” Caius muttered to the others, then started advancing on one of the carnies walking by. “Hey! Hey you -- where is your boss? Where’s Radley?” he called.
Reagan understood the desire to run off and enjoy the carnival. The sounds, the smells, the sights... all of it was appealing, even if she knew there was something sinister happening beneath it. But gods, she wanted her body back. She wanted to kiss her husband and regain her magic. Seeing auras was confusing and disorienting, especially because her own aura, seen now through Zania's eyes, was a bit off and looked nothing like the others. What did that mean? She didn't want to ask Zania, especially not in front of the others. Caius's voice prompted her to refocus and she watched him approach one of the dull looking carnies. The man barely glanced in Caius's direction, though there was no flicker of recognition, before he continued to walk by.
"I don't think we heard one of them talk when we were here last night," she reminded Caius. "They all look like mannequins that move."
Nic had managed to avoid the carnival up until now, so he had no baseline to compare against, but he immediately felt the draw once they were on the grounds. It made him want to wander off and explore despite their current predicament and he had to force himself to focus, scanning the crowds for the authority figure that Caius spoke of. Nothing and no one stood out as magical, yet he could tell that something was off about it all. Yet that knowledge attempted to slip away from him with every passing second and he wondered if he would have even sensed it if he hadn’t been given reason to. “Even the ones running the games are quiet,” he said, noticing how weird that was after Reagan pointed it out. “Did you speak to anyone?”
Zania frowned for a moment, then shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.” They’d had no reason to and, at the time, she’d been glad of it. She hadn’t wanted to deal with carnies pushing their games or their rides, happy to wander and find the sights on her own. For all the noise that radiated from the carnival, none of it seemed to come from the employees. It was suspicious, but it didn’t point them towards any answers. “Should we focus on Radley or one of the rides? I don’t recall seeing him, but I’ll admit I wasn’t watching for anyone. If he’s as quiet as the rest of them, I wouldn’t have noticed him.”
“He wasn’t that quiet, he spoke just fine to me,” Caius informed them archly, further irritated at being ignored by the worker. Maybe they weren’t capable of communicating with outsiders, or maybe they were just all assholes whose faces he currently wanted to smash. He was sorely tempted to just tear through the rest of the carnival to hunt down Radley, but that would probably be a waste of time and energy -- he was sure the man would only be found if he wanted to be. It made Caius want to destroy this entire place, but that wouldn’t help Reagan, so he attempted to quell his anger and think of solutions.
Following Zania’s train of thought, Gabriel glanced around at all of them. “If the mirror maze is where y’all felt weird, we should probably start there,” he said, kind of eager to get out of the Employees Only area. None of the carnies seemed threatening at all, they were barely there, but something about it still felt risky. “Kind of makes sense in a movie way that it happened there, anyway,” he added in a mutter. “Reflections, who are you really, that kind of shit.”
Reagan could tell that Caius was losing patience, so she nodded at Gabriel, happy to go with any possible solution right now. "Let's go to the maze," she said. "We can see if we feel that strangeness again. If not, we'll try to find Radley again. He's got to be here somewhere." Sure, Reagan was a little worried that they would step into the mirror maze and Gabriel and Caius would switch bodies overnight, but that was a risk she was willing to take at this point. Caius could use his obscurities, see if there was any dark magic hanging around the mirrors.
Gabriel’s words echoed in Zania’s head, repeating over and over in a silent request for attention. His statement might have been off hand, but she felt like there was something to it, even if she didn’t know what to do about it. All she knew was that this wasn’t who she was. It wasn’t her body and it wasn’t her magic, and the weird part was that she didn’t know which was worse. Both felt foreign, but it was Reagan’s magic that she worried about tapping into, remembering the fire she’d conjured earlier and how much more explosive it had been than she expected. “Mirrors can be used for all kinds of spells. A whole maze of them could be dangerous. We should probably stay together. It’s deceivingly easy to get lost in there.”
Caius didn’t know if there was any real rhyme or reason to this -- he’d been through the mirror maze and he was still in his own body, so had Gabriel, and he was sure dozens of people had done the same throughout the first part of the week. Was it because they were both fire witches? Because they knew each other? Or was it some random sick joke by the ringleader of this cursed place? Who could know? All Caius truly cared about at the moment was fixing it and getting his wife back in her body. Every step showing his irritation, Caius led the way toward the mirror maze. It was so strange to feel the carnival tugging at the edges of his mind, like barely-there whispers to relax and have fun, enjoy himself ... obviously another manipulation, and his bad mood seemed to be countering it, but no wonder there were so many goddamn people here.
Reagan followed Caius, wishing she had her own magic. She felt as though she would be able to find Radley then. Force him to fix whatever it was his carnival had done to her. And then perhaps burn him up from the inside. With every step in Zania's body, Reagan grew more attached to the idea, something dark enjoying the mere idea of burning the entire carnival to the ground. Only, she wanted to do it with her fire, not Zania's. Walking towards the maze, Reagan stared at the makeshift building, watching people walk in with no fear as to what could be hiding inside. "This is it," she murmured. "I can feel it. I have no idea what we need to do, but this is where we do it."
Not having her magic was driving Zania batty. She was sure that if she’d been in her body, she’d be able to amp up the auras and see what the problem was. She usually suppressed them in daily life, so she could have easily missed something the first time around, but now that she knew what they were walking into, they would have been useful. Instead, she was stuck with Reagan’s magic, which felt wrong every time she tapped into it. Despite being fire, just like hers, something was off, combustible and wild. Zania didn’t fear it, but also worried she might set someone on fire if she tried to weld it, and the last thing this carnival needed was a human barbecue. She barely reached out with it when they stopped in front of the mirror maze and that was enough. She pulled it back in. “We go in,” she said. “Hunt out the core of the spell. Dissect it. The answer has to be in there.” She looked up at Gabriel, then over to Nic. “Stay close. We don’t want to lose each other.”
There wasn’t much else they could do, in Gabriel’s estimation. This was presumably the place where it had started, so this was where the solution had to be. He wasn’t about to entertain the idea that there was no solution, because there had to be. He gave Zania a small smile when their eyes met, even though her eyes weren’t her eyes. After a beat of hesitation, he reached out to take her hand. She might be in the wrong body, but it was really her in there, and he wanted to support her. Gabriel made sure not to even look at Caius as they all walked into the mirror maze entrance. This was weird for all of them, they were all in the same boat, and there were more important matters to deal with than any possessive bullshit.
Reagan ignored the image of Gabriel holding the hand that belonged to her despite the fact that it was Zania inside. Instead she walked into the maze and began to immediately seek out anything that felt strange, any area within the mirrors where the spell might be hiding. If she and Zania looked into the same mirror, at a certain time... was that what happened? There were a few kids ahead of them, shrieking with laughter before they disappeared around a glassy corridor. "Can you see anything with the Obscurities?" Reagan asked Caius. "Even if it's a mirror that seems out of place from the rest?"
The environment in the mirror maze was visually confusing to start with, and it became doubly so as Caius blinked rapidly and called the Obscurities forth. The reflections looked bizarre to his all-black eyes, the spirits definitely picking up magic in the place, and the strangeness of the women’s reflections. “It’s weird in here,” Caius muttered grimly as he scanned the area around them. He started walking, both hands out to skim the mirror walls on either side of him. Finding one’s way through the maze was hard enough with normal vision, and to his disgruntlement, he nearly ran into a glass wall once or twice. “Wait ... there, up ahead,” Caius said suddenly, his voice sharper. “There’s one that’s glowing ...” He led them to the mirror panel and pointed to it, though he was too wary to step in front of it yet.
Zania turned towards the mirror Caius had indicated, but saw nothing unusual. If she’d had her own powers, with her own eyes, that might be different, but she just had to hope that what he was seeing was something of value and not an opportunity to make things worse. Her hand slipped out of Gabriel’s as she stepped towards it, Reagan’s reflection coming into view. It looked…disappointingly normal. “I’m not sure what to do,” she said, moving closer. All seemed normal until she raised her hand to touch the mirror—as soon as her finger touched the glass, her reflection grinned maliciously, and when she stepped back to look at the others they were gone. She was somewhere else in the maze, her reflection all around her, something off about all of them. “Fuck,” she muttered, then raised her voice, hoping the others would hear her. “Reagan! Don’t touch it!”
Reagan had seen the same reflection - Zania's - and hadn't known quite what to do when Zania yelled at her not to touch the reflection. But if Caius saw this mirror as something sinister, they would have to do something. The Zania reflection seemed... not quite real. Malevolent in a way that sent a brief shiver down Reagan's spine. "Did you touch the mirror last night?" she called out to Zania. Reagan had, just in passing, but she hadn't really thought much of it until now. Maybe they had to touch their reflections and deal with whatever might happen. Wandering around would do no good, of that she was sure.
Zania could hear Reagan’s response, which was good, but she sounded farther away than she should be. The building for the maze hadn’t been that big, a pop-up just like the rest of them, yet it suddenly felt huge. She tried to remember back to last night, when she’d been wandering the maze, teasing Gabriel, and she was sure there was a point in which she’d touched it then. She didn’t recall it behaving quite so maliciously at the time, but that didn’t mean anything. “Yes,” she yelled back after a moment’s hesitation. “Just… be careful. I’m not where I was. And my reflection seems off.” Not just because it wasn’t herself looking back at her. This version of Reagan seemed threatening, mimicking her movements, but with a touch of madness and glee that Zania knew she was lacking at the moment.
Gabriel did not like the way Zania just disappeared when she touched the mirror -- even though her body was still standing there with them. Being in this unnatural, visually confusing environment was making him feel even more tense and stressed. He wanted to break every single one of these fucking mirrors until he found Zan in her right form, but Gabriel was sure that would do more harm than good.
“Maybe you both have to touch it at the same time?” Caius suggested, though he couldn’t sound sure, because he wasn’t. Whatever had done this had done it quickly and silently, and all they could really do was hope that it was reversible. He was wracking his brain for a spell that could reveal the enchantment or give them some sense of what exactly had happened so they could do it backward, but nothing was coming to mind yet.
Reagan had no idea. This place was a little bizarre and she didn't like the feel of it. Zania's reflection did not look inviting at all - then again, Zania wasn't all that inviting, something Reagan could appreciate - and Reagan worried what might happened if she did touch the mirror. But it was worth a shot. What else could they do? "I'm going to touch it," she yelled. She brought her hand up and was momentarily distracted by the sound of someone laughing. A man. The lights in the mirror maze seemed to dim drastically, making it harder to see. Even the reflection of herself - Zania - was laughing, though she couldn't hear it the way she could the man. "Just touch the mirror," she called out to Zania before pressing her hand to the glass.
Zania glared at the mirrors surrounding her. Not one of them looked inviting to touch. Her reflection was all wrong, Reagan’s features twisted into those of malice and mischief, and her natural inclination was to smash the glass to smithereens. That would be a poor call on her part and she knew it, but touching them didn’t seem any smarter. The glass seemed to dim as her fingers made contact and she was just about to yell out that she was touching it when cold fingers threaded with her own. Zania screamed as she was pulled through the mirror, plunging through the glass as if it were made of water—freezing water that locked behind her. Zania turned to see her body, or rather Reagan’s body, standing there, fingers still outstretched, eyes wide with surprise. But when she tried to dive back through, it was like hitting a brick wall. “Fuck!” she snapped, surprised to hear her own voice with the curse. Panic twisted with relief—she was on the wrong side of the mirror, but back in her own body. Reagan’s waited on the other side of the mirror, abandoned. “Reagan?!” she called out, praying she wasn’t alone in this madness. “Are you in here?”
Reagan had pushed through the glass like Zania, startled at first but before she could really register what was happening, she was on the other side of the mirror. And she was herself again. Her body. "Thank the gods," she said breathlessly before pressing her hands to the glass again. It was solid. Frustration surged through her and she felt her magic start to simmer. Her magic. She could destroy this entire building, if she wanted to. But Caius was still inside and she wasn't going to risk hurting him. Zania's voice prompted Reagan to turn away from the glass, searching for the other woman. "I'm here," she called. "Just follow my voice."
Zania breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Reagan speak and immediately started in the direction of her voice, only to freeze a moment later. Looking back, Reagan’s body still stood on the other side of the mirror, arm raised, fingers pressed against the glass. She couldn’t get out here, but maybe Reagan could. But if she left it, how would she ever find her way back here? Her hands went to her pockets, looking for something to mark her way with, only to come up empty. Then she remembered that her magic was back—her magic. Knowing it wouldn’t blow up in her face, Zania summoned a little flame, only a couple inches high, and threw it on the floor in front of the mirror. Then she focused on each step, feeding flames through her feet, scorching the ground as she walked. She checked several times to ensure her path stayed marked as she made her way forward, weaving through the maze as Reagan’s voice drew closer. “Stay where you are!” she called. “I’m coming to you!”
Reagan really had no idea where else she would go. Wandering this place seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. For a moment she wondered how many people got pulled through that glass, only to be stuck for eternity? This place had dark magic woven through it, after all. Reagan wasn't terribly scared. She could destroy every mirror in this place if she wanted to, but that would attract so much attention. Destruction had to be the last resort. "I'm here," she called again, wanting Zania to continue to hear her so she knew where to go. Finally the other woman came into view and Reagan breathed a soft sigh of relief. "So this is fun. How do we get out?"
Zania would have happily burned the place to the ground, but she wasn’t entirely sure they could get out if they did so. They were inside the mirrors and needed back in their bodies first. There was also the important bit where their loved ones were still in the maze and not as impervious to fire as they were. If destruction was on the menu, they should probably get to safety first. “This is just a guess, but I think I can get back through touching the mirror you just left,” she said, nodding towards her body on the other side of the mirror, lightly touching the glass. “I left fiery breadcrumbs back to your body. Maybe if we touch it at the same time? If it works, we’ll be back in the maze, but in our own bodies. Then we just have to find the others and get out. And maybe burn this fucker to the ground.”
Reagan looked past Zania to the space where she had emerged from. She could see the fire on the floor and then nodded. "It seems too easy, but maybe that's the point." She pushed her hands through her hair. "I'll yell when I get back to my body... or rather, its reflection." Hopefully her reflection didn't try to strangle her. Moving past Zania, Reagan followed the fiery breadcrumbs until she found herself where Zania had initially been pulled through the glass. "Okay," she yelled, hoping Caius wasn't on the other side panicking. Maybe no time would have passed at all. Who knew with this kind of magic. "Count to three," she added.
It did seem simple, but if they hadn’t been witches Zania didn’t think they’d have ever made it this far. They hadn’t even been sure it was the mirror maze they needed to visit, and after that they’d just been lucky. She didn’t even want to consider what might happen if they got lost on this side of the mirror. “Let’s be quick,” Zania agreed as Reagan left to follow the trail she’d left for her. It felt like someone was watching her beyond the eyes reflected in the glass and her the hair on her arms stood up, goosebumps prickling. A scraping sound broke the silence and Zania began to hold her breath. All the reflections, other than the one waiting for her, had started grinning in such a way that it made her skin crawl. The scraping got louder and just as she was about to yell to Reagan to hurry, she heard her voice. “Okay!” she called out, hand outstretched, ready to touch the glass. “One…” In her reflection, a shape began to crawl out of the darkness. “Two…” Red eyes drew closer and Zania’s hand shook with the effort to not jump the gun. “Three!” Teeth flashed and she touched the glass.
Reagan pushed through the glass, grateful that it didn't break beneath her palms. Instead, she slipped through it much as she had earlier and she found herself on the other side, in her proper body with her magic. Exhaling, Reagan closed her eyes. Thank the gods. The reflections had felt ominous to her, and they might still be dangerous, but she felt like she could handle it now. "Caius?" she called, her first thought to check on him and make sure he was okay.
Zania rushed through with a jolt, moving so fast that she was sure the glass had broken behind her. It sucked the air from her lungs, forcing a gasp to her lips—her lips, not Reagan’s. Her hands skimmed down her body, over her hips, and her magic surged inside her. She wanted nothing more than to set the place aflame right then and there, but a laugh in the distance stopped her. And then Reagan’s voice, calling out for Caius. “We did it,” she said, looking around for the first time. Relief was sweet, but they still needed to find Reagan and get out of that hell-hole. “Reagan! We’ll come to you!”
On their side of the mirror, things seemed to happen faster -- Reagan in Zania’s body touched the mirror and froze up for a few seconds. Gabriel’s stomach twisted and he had to fist his hands up to resist the urge to grab her away from the mirror, knowing that could do more harm than good at the moment. The stillness in her body and the wide blank stare he could see in the mirror were unsettling. Those few seconds felt like an eternity, but suddenly she was gasping and moving. “Ohthankfuck,” he breathed in a rush, already able to tell that it was Zania again and not Reagan inside of her. Even as she called for the other woman, Gabriel swept her up into a bear hug.
Caius was already moving away from the little group of Castells, following his wife’s voice, his heart pounding hard in his chest. He was very careful not to touch any of the mirror walls. He just wanted Reagan and to get the fuck out of this place. And then maybe level it to the goddamn dirt. He was still full of anger that this carnival was fucking with his town with impunity. Caius was sure his father was losing his touch. “Reagan!” he called back to prompt her to say his name again.
For a brief moment, she saw a man in the mirror, his lips curled over his teeth, his eyes dark and empty. He held out his hand to her and for a brief moment, Reagan felt the desire to touch the glass again and explore the unknown. But then she heard Caius's voice, tugging her back to reality and she turned away from the mirror to see her husband. "Caius." The man in the mirror was gone and she hurried to Caius, her heart pounding with adrenaline. How many people had touched these mirrors and disappeared into them? How many were still there? "Let's get the hell out of here."
Nic could feel the second Zania snapped back into her body, the link between them clicking back into place, even though he couldn’t have explained how it was missing in the first place. He knew he was the third wheel in this adventure, absolutely useless in solving this problem, but he’d have never been able to sit at home while his sister went in search of answers, knowing how truly fucked up things would be if she didn’t find them. As soon as she latched onto Gabriel, he became aware of their surroundings and the immediate need to vacate them. Whatever had tricked them was still there, and it was possible it would do it again if given the chance. “We should go.”
“No shit,” Zania muttered from within Gabriel’s embrace. She wanted to stay there longer, but they could do that once they got somewhere safe. She gave Gabriel a squeeze, then released his body to take his hand. “We need to get out of here now. There’s something in the mirrors. Don’t touch them,” she instructed, pushing her body to increase the auras around her, to show her anything she might otherwise miss. They only worked on people, but Caius had just rushed ahead of them and behind him there was a faint trail of his own aura, a trail she could follow to him, and hopefully to Reagan. The maze was supposed to be fun, not difficult, and it shouldn’t take a lot of work to get out so long as they stuck together.