Another switch and run

Your epiphany has freed you of all worry and stress. The carefree child in you skips happily down the hall towards the spa where there are more rooms to hide and switch, though fewer people. It is an exhilarating feeling even as Alexandra's neurotic memories fill you with a sense of doom, ... no death, or really suicide. She has contemplated this many times before; yet with the help of drugs and therapy, she has lingered in a fantasy and avoided taking the final step out of this world. You hope that continues after you abandon her.

This thing is so fucked up, you think. So fucked up even that you're tempted to get back to the wedding and zap as many as possible to get a complete inventory of this craziness, but you don't.

The first door is an exit stairway from the floors above. Coming up is the entrance to the spa. There's a reception area inside that is sure to be staffed, and you aren't currently inconspicuous enough to just slip in. However, there's at most one person that a lucky shot could skin before they realized you were there. Emphasis is on lucky. Maybe you should take the stairs even in the bulky gown. Hopefully, there's a room or someone you can find up there before someone else finds you.

Just as you are about to eenie-meenie-minie-moe, the stairwell door opens and someone steps out in front of you not looking back. Before you think, you pen the person, and they shrivel to the floor. Must be your training as you grab the skin and clothes and are in the stairwell a second after you realize it.

No time to even see who your new costume is, only to check the opening (you're not going to be caught again) - it's clean, so you just pop out the back of Alexandra and climb in to your new disguise. There's probably just a minute before someone comes down the hall so you get dressed and flee back upstairs once Alexandra is sealed back and starts to inflate.

As the memories flood in, they lead you onto the third floor with fake Bloom in your pocket. Your room is 302, but it won't take long before the resort is on lockdown. No time to go in your room since escape will be tricky if not impossible if you're not gone in the next five minutes. Fortunately, your new person has a car in the lot. All you have to do is get there. Elevator too slow. Can't go back down these stairs. Out the window looks like the best choice.

Robert Foxworth, retired salesman invited to speak at the annual Casket Hardware conference that starts tomorrow morning. He was just taking a stroll around the resort and wanted to check out the facilities, not that he would use them although he really needs to. He's sixty years old, pudgy, balding with a scattering of white hairs and a beard that make him look more intelligent than he is. Not athletic, but hopefully that won't be necessary. You just need to get to the bank and find a way to switch this fake for the real Scarlet Bloom.

Quickly scanning through the window at the end of the hall as you raise it, you see the roof of the second floor meeting rooms and an access door at the far end. The wedding is taking place at the other end of the resort, but this is where the reception will be held. The drop is just a few feet and about fifty meters to the door. Piece of cake, except when you reach the door. It's locked. Nothing in his pockets except a bit of change from the soda machine and handkerchief. Then his memories remind you to check his wallet where he keeps his bank cards and an old paper clip. You eyes pop happily remembering the lock-pick class. A minute later you're down the stairs and out the side door at the edge of the parking lot.

The logical thing is to head straight to the bank where the Bloom is - and "Bob" happens to have an account - and get into the safety deposit box room and retrieve the Bloom. Of course, you don't know what box it's in, but nabbing a bank employee should allow you access to records to find out. Then again, everything that has seemed logical so far has been a complete contradiction. Perhaps going back and grabbing one of the Van Lewens might be in order. It's a bit trickier especially having the fake Bloom, but the wedding disruption should allow you an excuse to duck out to the bank. Maybe stash the trinket in Bob's car. You only wonder what bizarre trait one of them will have. Bob seems quite normal, at least so far. You can't believe that the Organization setup everyone, but then again ...?

(Author: Wordsmitty)