Chapter 11
I didn’t know where to start, but at least he’d be more open to hearing the crazy things that had happened now that he saw he wasn’t in his own body.
“Am I dreaming?” Matt shook his head, still staring at his reflection—well, at Brian’s reflection. “That’s the only explanation. That’s not me. Not my face.”
“Okay, Matt, please listen to me. I am Jodi. I look different, just like you. And, no, you’re not dreaming. This is all real. It’s going to sound unbelievable, but I need you to trust me.”
He raised his eyes to me. “Jodi? It’s really you?”
I nodded, tears forming in my eyes.
He rushed over to me, pressing his lips against mine. I froze, not knowing what to do. He thought we were still together. Matt didn’t know anything about me and Alex. To him, I was still his girlfriend. I was human now, which meant that he and I could be together. That fact wasn’t lost on me, but neither was the fact that I loved Alex. Still, my unresolved feelings for Matt were lingering, keeping me from pulling out of the kiss.
My lips gently parted, and without really meaning to, I was kissing him back. This was how our first kiss should’ve been. I wouldn’t stop his heart this time. Being with him felt right. In this moment, being with Matt was what made sense.
But Alex. I slowly pulled away from Matt, leaning my head against his chest. Tears dripped onto his hospital gown. My tears. For once, I didn’t have to worry about what that would mean. I wasn’t a danger to him.
“Don’t cry. I’m here. I don’t know what happened to us, but it’ll be okay. I promise.” Great. Now he was the one reassuring me. This wasn’t at all what was supposed to happen.
“You don’t understand.” I stood up straight, trying to find the courage to break his heart. We couldn’t be together. No matter how right that kiss had felt, it couldn’t happen again. I wouldn’t do that to Alex. I wouldn’t cheat on him. Crap! Technically, I already had, but I was putting an end to it now. I wasn’t the kind of girl to kiss another guy behind her boyfriend’s back, but this was such a gray area. I was technically Matt’s girlfriend, so I’d technically cheated on him with Alex. Only Matt had died, and that sort of ended our relationship, whether he was aware of it or not. Now, I was Alex’s girlfriend, and here I was kissing Matt. Ugh! I hated technicalities. There wasn’t room for them when it came to human emotions.
“Jodi, what is it? Do you know what happened to us?” He was looking at me like he just wanted to make things better—for me. All he cared about was me. God, this was going to be so hard.
“We’re in other people’s bodies. I promise I’ll explain everything, but right now we need to get out of here without anyone seeing us.”
“How? We’re in hospital gowns, and we don’t have money to take a cab anywhere.”
He was right. I looked around, spotting the files at the ends of our gurneys. I pulled out Liz’s. “Elizabeth Roseman. It says she didn’t have any living relatives.”
Matt pulled Brian’s file. “Brian Gehris. That’s whose body I’m in?”
“Yes.”
Matt shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around everything I was telling him. “Personal belongings. He must have had a wallet on him when he died, right? The file says he was killed in a car accident.”
I looked around again, wondering if they’d have personal belongings stored in here to return to the families. Not likely. This place was empty, sterile. “There’s nothing here.”
“Okay, then how about…” Matt walked to the closet in the corner and pulled out some hospital scrubs and white sneakers.
“Perfect!” I motioned for Matt to turn around while I got dressed. Just like always, he was a perfect gentleman. My sneakers were big, but they’d do. Once we were both outfitted like hospital staff, we checked the hall and prepared to make our exit. We had to get out of there before someone came for the bodies. They wouldn’t leave them here for long, or they’d decay. That also meant we had to get out of this town quickly so no one recognized Liz and Brian suddenly walking around after being pronounced dead. I could see the back exit, and judging by the darkness on the other side of the window, it was night. That would help. We kept our heads down and walked out of the morgue as if we worked there. We even took Liz and Brian’s files and pretended to study them to avoid talking to anyone we passed on the way out.
Outside, we ditched the files in the dumpster and walked down the road and across the street to a cemetery, of all places. At least I felt at home in one of those.
“I can’t believe we pulled that off,” Matt said.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and took Matt’s hands in mine. Yeah, Alex wouldn’t like this either. Still, I owed it to Matt to be gentle. He’d been nothing but good to me. “Matt, there’s something you don’t know about me. I’m not who you think I am.”
He raised his hand to my head. “Did you hurt yourself? Were we knocked out? You’re not making sense. I know you. I knew you the day I met you. When Melodie introduced us, I could tell you were an amazing person. You’re sweet and caring. Not to mention you’re smoking hot. I have to admit I don’t like this blonde look on you, though. It’s all wrong.”
I couldn’t have this conversation right now. “We need to get out of here.” I didn’t want to stick around the cemetery. It was too close to the hospital, and someone might see us.
“Where do you want to go?”
“We should find some other clothes so we don’t stick out in a crowd.”
“Where are we?” Matt looked around. “This doesn’t look like the cemetery at home.”
“I don’t really know. We’ll have to figure that out.” I scouted out the road. “For now, let’s just get out of here. We can talk on the way.”
He took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine as we walked. “I think someone did some sort of spell on us. You know, like witches or something. I never thought they were real, but how else do you explain this?”
A nervous laugh escaped my lips. “How about a group of necromancers called the Ophi raised our souls and put us in the bodies of two recently killed teenagers?”
He cocked his head at me. “Is this some prank? Are you in on it? Should I be looking for Melodie lurking in the shadows?”
“No.” I squeezed his hand. “Do you trust me? Really trust me?”
The smile left his face. “Jodi, look. There’s something I want to say. I know it’s early, we’ve only been dating for a little while, but I meant what I said about when we first met. I felt like I knew you. The whole time we were friends, before we started dating, I kept wishing you’d look at me the way I looked at you.”
Oh, God, where was he going with this? Please, don’t let him say the L-word. I couldn’t handle it right now.
“I don’t want to scare you away, but I can’t hold this in any longer. Jodi—”
“Matt, don’t.”
“I love you.”
My insides felt like they’d turned to stone. My heart wasn’t able to pump blood to the rest of my body. I felt too heavy to hold myself up. Thankfully, we were at the gate at the other end of the cemetery, so I used it for support as we kept moving.
“It’s okay if you don’t love me back. I know it’s soon.” He brushed my hair off my shoulder. “But I do love you, Jodi. So, if you want to know if I trust you, the answer is yes. With all my heart.”
I lost it. I cried, big heaping sobs. This would’ve been easier if Matt remembered me killing him. If he remembered being a zombie and killing that bunny. If he remembered that I’d been the one responsible for his death, not once but twice. Instead, he loved me.