The Worm

Before he could muster the courage to say anything, Rebecca opened her eyes, and on seeing Lee’s face, broke into an exhausted smile.

“I’m back.”

“Welcome back,” said Lee, planting a kiss on her lips.

They spent the rest of the night together on the bed, both exhausted from their respective ordeals. The new Rebecca took some time enumerating her body’s assets, and both of them agreed that the vast majority of them could be offloaded without any drama. Her dramatic change in personality would need some explaining, and a story about mending old relationships and turning over a new leaf was concocted.

The old Tania woke up, and Lee was relieved to find that she no longer recognised him as anyone but a forgettable friend whose house she had been crashing at for almost a year. Lee gave her the keys to the house and she caught a rideshare home to sleep off whatever had knocked her out in the first place.

“She’ll be fine,” the new Rebecca said, watching her leave wistfully. “I’ll miss being her. It’s going to take some time getting used to another new name. It always does.”