Shudder - The College Years Ch. 03

Lola's face wrinkled in confusion. "Uh, it might be harder than what I'm doing now actually. But why would you want that?"

"Because...I don't know? I guess it's one thing to have random hook ups with people. You can make them forget. You can make anyone forget. But, we're not altering who they are forever. We're still probably terrible people, but we're not as bad as Nevyn. Last I talked to Mom she confided in me that she has to get off a few times a day before Dad gets home, which is not a conversation I liked having, but she couldn't talk about it with anyone else. Nevyn really did a number on her."

Lola put a finger on her lips as Derek thought about this. "Shouldn't Nevyn's influence have worn off her by now?"

Neither had an answer to this question, but their thoughts were interrupted as Lola's phone chimed. She picked the phone that Aubrey had let drop to the floor and laughed. "Oh my gosh! Why is he sending me a picture of his limp dick after he's jacked off? Is that supposed to be a compliment? What a tool." They had one last good laugh before Aubrey returned to her notes, and Derek carefully resumed editing Lola's memories.

The day before the majority of students would evacuate the hallowed halls for a much needed break, Derek decided to test his handiwork. It was mental work actually, but he supposed that wasn't a commonly used expression. If this didn't work, they would have to wait until after break to carry test his theory, which was actually the professor's theory, but Derek was taking credit for it. In hopes that Lola would be their faithful friend and research assistance, Derek tiptoed her body out the door at dawn. Lola returned a minute later, but her actions were mechanical now as she quietly closed the door and got under her covers. Almost immediately after Lola was settled, a knock indicated that someone was outside. Lola didn't stir despite every previous indication that she was awake.

After a second round of knocking, Aubrey brushed her matted hair out of her face and sat up in her bed. "Okay, we hear you!" She shuffled to her feet and flung the door open, angry at the early intrusion.

There stood her resident advisor, Charlene, with a smile that drew attention to her prominent dimples. "Hey, Aubrey, Lola, how are you ladies this morning?"

Aubrey's first reaction was to glare at this happy woman who disturbed her sleep, but forced a smile and replied, "Fine. What can we do for you?" She glanced at Lola who hadn't rolled over yet.

Charlene pushed past Aubrey and entered the room. "I'm glad you asked. You might want to shut the door. This might get a little personal. Lola, could you join us please?"

Lola had begun to rub the sleep from her eyes and sat up at Charlene's prompting. Her face also said she was not a fan of visitors at this hour."It's too early for talking," she grumbled.

Charlene dropped her sunny smile and adopted a serious face. "I don't know if you're aware of this, but it seems someone has been running around and impersonating other people."

Aubrey swallowed but said coolly "You mean someone is running around stealing people's information, like identity theft?"

Charlene shook her head. "Much worse I'm afraid. This person has been able to disguise themselves somehow and fool people all around campus. He's disguised himself as professors, classmates, even the dean. There's now an ongoing investigation and we're supposed to apprise everyone and keep a close eye out for suspicious activity."

Aubrey's heart sank as she realized their goal just moved a little farther out of reach. "Oh, okay. Um, what sort of suspicious activity are we talking about?"

Charlene moved closer to Aubrey and touched her arm reassuringly. "Oh, are you scared? Don't be scared. I'm sure they'll catch whoever is doing this."

Aubrey looked at her RA's hand and had a thought, but dismissed it as needless paranoia. "I'm, I'm not scared. What kind of suspicious..."

"I guess just people not acting like themselves," Charlene said soothingly. Her other hand lightly grabbed Aubrey's other arm and pulled her into an embrace. "It'll be okay. I've got you."

"Charlene?" Aubrey asked hesitantly, then froze as one of Charlene's hands slid underneath her pajama bottoms and cupped her bare butt. "Charlene!"

"Bri," chimed in an annoyed Lola, "that's clearly Derek."

Aubrey turned her head slowly to Lola, Charlene's hand still on her ass, the other working now working its way towards her breast. She ignored both as her eyes locked on her roommate's. "What did you just say?"

"I said it's Derek. He's doing that role play thing he always does where he tries to trick us. Next time do it at a decent hour." With that, Lola laid back down, pulled the covers over herself and rolled over.

Aubrey's head snapped back to look Charlene in the face, where she was met with a wide grin and cute dimples. "What the hell?" she exclaimed in a whisper.

"Let's have a chat," Charlene said cheerily. "I have some good news." After she said this, Aubrey's body began to shudder, starting with her butt, which jiggled excessively.

Aubrey only had time to arch an eyebrow and say sardonically, "Really?"

Her consciousness was enveloped as her brother took control of her body, and he answered her question in his voice. "Really. Just helping you shake what your mother gave you." Derek could feel his sister's thought equivalent of an eye roll in his head. "Charlene, thanks for the ride. Go back to your room now and continue with your day as normal."

Wordlessly and mechanically, Charlene exited the room. Unabashedly, Aubrey's eyes tracked her ass as she went. "You should have made her ass jiggle like that," Aubrey thought to him inside her mind. "Now what the hell is going on? Lola knows about you now? And it's all normal to her? Mind filling your sister in?"

Derek's voice laughed out of Aubrey's mouth and then started gathering toiletries to get ready for the day. "I was successful at the thing I was working on, at least, pretty darn sure I am."

Aubrey knew that he was referring to warping Lola's memories so she would see them as an ally. She also knew that Derek wasn't saying it out loud so as not to harm his work. Communication was tricky with Derek in her driver's seat. He could show her memories, his fantasies, and convey emotions, all without words. Sometimes words were helpful or necessary though, and she could only hear those if they came out of her own mouth with Derek speaking them. He could hear every word she thought, but his were not obtainable to her. Knowing this, she spoke freely, trusting Derek to choose his words carefully in response. "So, she thinks we're all best friends?"

Derek let a memory play out in Aubrey's mind. It was Aubrey's first day of college when she and Lola had first met. In this memory, Lola entered their dorm room. She dropped off her stuff while looking at her phone, then saw the person who must be her new roommate. She was about to look back at her phone, but then hesitated, and went over and introduced herself. They talked about where they were from and what courses they were studying. It ended with Lola saying that she remembered what it was like to be a freshman and she'd try to make it a more tolerable experience for Aubrey than hers had been.

"Whoa," Aubrey thought. "That's not how it happened at all, but it seemed so real."

"That's the idea," Derek said quietly. "Time will tell if it holds, but I think it'll be alright."

"You think?"

"I hope. I've never done anything this extensive before."

Aubrey was silent a moment as she thought of possible repercussions. "Wait, so, does this mean that we can..."

Derek's voice interrupted as he addressed Lola. "You still on for helping us later today, Lola?"

The girl waived a hand dismissively in their direction. "Not if you keep talking to me while I'm trying to sleep!"

"Right, sorry," Derek's voice said apologetically. "I'll see you this afternoon."

"We're doing it!" Aubrey's thoughts exclaimed. "She's going to help us get the MRI and..." Aubrey's feelings suddenly turned to melancholy and doubt. "I still don't know why you, or Professor Kendrick, think it's so important."

"Like I said, Bri, it's just a theory the professor had. It could be nothing. Either way, I'm sure we'll learn something from it. Now let's go scrub down your naked body."

Aubrey's thoughts giggled as her young body headed for the showers.

Lola's head seemed fuzzy as she went about her day. It was almost like she was trying to remember a night she had partied excessively, but without the hangover. For the most part, she seemed fine, but there were certain things that if she thought about, they didn't make sense to her. Like, why was she going to help out Aubrey and Derek again today? She had agreed to it. She remembered agreeing to it. She had been there in their room while Derek was inside Aubrey and he had been telling her about them wanting to use the university hospital's MRI machine and needing her help and she had said yes. She remembered it vividly. It was in striking detail, but it seemed...off, almost too real. It was like when a television screen had so much resolution that you could see the actor's makeup.

The other issue Lola couldn't reconcile was that she would normally only stick her neck out like this for very close friends. Were they that close? Her memories told her they were. The more she thought and tried to rationalize past actions and encounters with them, the more off it felt. She didn't like new people and had resented not getting the chance to move off campus with some friends due to her parents not providing the finances for her to do so. But she had gone out of her way to make Aubrey feel at home? And when had she found out about Derek?

The professor of the class Lola was in droned on but she heard none of it. She was trying to remember the moment that she learned about Derek and his ability to possess people. She could recall very well Aubrey explaining why they had come here. They were trying to get Derek's body back from someone named Nevyn, whoever that was. She didn't plan on ever meeting him so she didn't care. But she could see Aubrey's face looking at her hopefully, imploringly, begging her to help them. The memory triggered feelings in her that wanted to help them despite not seeming to have all the information. Those feelings had led to...sex? This memory really flummoxed her. She was having sex with them, and hiding it from her boyfriend. It had been hot and, it was just experimenting she supposed, just letting off the stress of college life. They way she just accepted it though, what was going on with her?

She thought about it often throughout her day, but couldn't come up with a good enough reason to let them down. Her boyfriend wanted to take her out that night, really wine and dine her before he went back home to visit the parents the next day. She had said yes, but then hesitated, and altered it to a maybe because she had to help her roommate. When he asked why, she felt it necessary to lie, because she couldn't just go telling him they were researching scientific methods of getting a body hopper back his original body. That kind of talk would land her in the nut house, and worse, she'd get dumped.

This is how Lola came to be standing with Aubrey around 5pm in the lobby of the university hospital. Lola was committed to helping, but still couldn't shake a feeling that something was wrong. She wanted this little project to be done as quickly as possible. "Bri, where the hell is your brother? I'm getting surf and turf tonight but only if we move this along."

"He'll be here," Aubrey said patiently.

"And I know he's pretty handy with his whole body jumping thing, but couldn't something go wrong? Couldn't we get in trouble or expelled or something?"

Aubrey smiled at her like she knew a secret. "I'm pretty sure he could make any person who was a problem come around to our way of thinking."

Lola stared at her. The way Aubrey had said it unnerved her for some reason. Lola was about to ask if she had ever been a problem to them but then they both watched Professor Kendrick come through the sliding doors.

"Sorry to keep you both waiting," he said, panting a little as if he had run here. "I had several students ask last minute questions about a project due shortly after we get back from break. Shall we?"

Without another word, he strode confidently through the lobby and down a hallway to the elevators. Aubrey and Lola followed, both nervous, but trying to appear confident that they belonged there. They hadn't done anything yet, and even when they did, they knew they had a pretty large safety net, but even so the prospect of getting caught weighed on them.

In the privacy of the elevator, Derek went over the task at hand. "Okay, no one will question the professor's presence. He's taught a lot of the medical students here at some point or other, and he's consulted with a lot of the doctors on various things to do with genetics and biology. He's doing a research grant with one of them so as long as you follow my lead, no one should ask questions. There isn't anyone scheduled to use the MRI right now, so barring any emergency, we shouldn't be disturbed. The professor has learned all about how to operate it and record the data over the last month, so we shouldn't have any issue there. The only problem we have is the time factor. Aubrey, you'll get into the MRI, and I'll hop into you, Lola. I'll program the professor to make the scan while he's compliant. Then I'll make the jump from Lola to Bri so we can see what it does to the brain. Then we'll see if the professor's theory is accurate."

"You make it sound so simple," Lola said sarcastically. "How much time do we have before the professor comes around?"

Derek thought for a second before answering. "I've been in him shortly after I left you this morning, so, hopefully 5 to 7 minutes. Plenty of time to get the scans, then hop back into him before anyone's the wiser."

Silence now filled the elevator as everyone prepared themselves. Lola was having another wave of doubt about helping them. The way Derek said he was going to hop into her body made Lola want to run for the hills. He said it so casually, like he was opening a door for her. He was going to be inside of her, and she was...cool with this? She looked at Bri and let out a breath. She'd do this one thing, but then she'd switch rooms over break and get away from this drama. She did not need this excitement in her life, and she didn't want Derek inside of her body and mind. At present though, it seemed like there was nothing for it, so she stuffed her worry deep down inside.

When they stepped off the elevator, Professor Kendrick again took point and moved with purpose to a nurse's station next to the elevators. This station served as a hub for that part of the hospital, and several corridors led in different directions. Kendrick strode towards one of those corridors and the girls followed along. Several nurses and a doctor glanced their way, many offering a hello to Professor Kendrick. The doctor went out of his way to say they should have lunch soon. They went down two hallways and finally came to the door they needed. The professor pulled out a key card. "A nice doctor provided me with this a while ago," Derek explained. He swiped it in a reader next to the door which flashed a green light. They entered.

They walked into a room that had another door directly in front, leading to the MRI control room. Around the corner was the reason they had gone to all this trouble. The magnetic resonance imaging machine seemed foreboding to Aubrey. She didn't really have a problem with enclosed spaces, but a powerful magnet and body hopping might not be a good mix. Nonetheless, she trusted her brother and if this helped him even a little, she would risk it.

Derek started giving instructions using his voice now instead of the professor's. "Aubrey, put any jewelry and your phone into this bin over there. Lola, you do the same."

"But I won't be in the machine," Lola protested, not wanting to be apart from her phone for even a second.

"But you'll be next to it, which is enough to mess up your phone, so I guess it's up to you."

Lola made a face and began removing her earrings. "I can't believe I'm about to let you...be inside me."

Professor Kendrick's face looked surprised for a moment, as if he couldn't believe she'd be having any doubts about what they were to do. Then his face became placid and Derek's voice encouraged, "It's happened before and you didn't mind it. You can't remember, but trust me, your body had a good time."

This had the opposite effect of putting Lola's mind at ease and she again fought an urge to run. The only thing that kept her in place was a glance at Aubrey. She was looking at her with that same pitiful face she had used when she told Lola that they'd need her help. She remembered that face so well. And she had said yes because she had taken responsibility to make sure she had a good college experience. How did that make sense? She was getting confused again. Lola reluctantly placed her phone in the bin and hoped this would all be over soon.

"Aubrey, lay on the table," Derek's voice ordered. As she did so, Derek took the professor's body into the control room. He used the controls to move the table Aubrey lay on into the opening of the MRI and stopped at her shoulders. He then began making adjustments to the computer so he could get the pictures they wanted. After Derek was satisfied, he looked at Lola expectantly. "It's time."

Lola felt like she was a little kid at the doctor's office about to get a shot. She slowly and apprehensively extended a hand towards him. "Just...get it over with," she muttered.

"Thanks again for agreeing to help, Lola," Derek said, then touched her hand with the tip of Professor Kendrick's finger.

Lola was about to say you're welcome, but stopped and watched in growing horror as her finger, then hand began to shudder. It climbed her arm rapidly and she turned to run, no longer caring about helping anyone other than herself. She didn't even get to the door before the shudder had run its course, and Derek was in full control of her body and soul.

Derek made a quick mental peek into Lola's thoughts and emotions and saw that despite his attempts at making heavy mental fortifications inside of her, the dam had been about to burst. What had he done wrong? Did this always happen, even to Nevyn? He'd have to ask Nevyn over break. He took a second to make sure Lola would not remember her moment of panic. Then Lola turned to Professor Kendrick, who was hovering silently over the controls to the machine, and Derek's voice spoke his orders. "Professor, begin taking scans now, and make sure to pay close attention to the moment I make contact with Aubrey's body. Record everything, and save everything to the drive I provided." The professor sat down and began pressing buttons and looking keenly out of the glass window in front of him so he could see the moment Lola interacted with Aubrey.

Lola took a breath and walked out to where Aubrey lay. "Don't speak, Sis, it can affect the scans. Just stay still and this will all be over in a couple minutes. Hopefully it wasn't all a colossal waste of time."

Derek positioned Lola at Aubrey's feet, then gave a look through the glass at the professor. Lola nodded. The professor nodded back, understanding that this was the moment. "I'm doing it now, Bri." And then Derek touched his sister's foot.

At first, everything seemed to go as normal. Aubrey felt the shudder begin in her toes and work quickly up her body as if it were an electrical current. And then something felt wrong and a moment later her body convulsed. She felt like she was going to black out and her fear rose inside her. Then her brother was there, inside her mind, in control of it, but he too seemed to be afraid as well. The lights in the room flickered, and one bulb blew, sending a shower of sparks into the room. And then as quickly as it had started, it was over.