No. No, no, nonononono.

I stare into the bathroom mirror, running my fingers over this face, not really believing that it's me. So much younger. The skin so smooth. Dark hair, untouched by gray.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Not like this. I have to do something.

I whip around, my eyes scanning the unfamiliar room. For a moment, I'm distracted by the lush landscape beyond the windows. Palm leaves ruffle in a breeze. The air is warm and sticky. So strange, when I'm so used to snow. It feels like I'm suffocating.

I find the prize and hurry over to the laptop on the desk. I don't know the password, but my new fingerprint does.

Before I even manage to log in to my accounts, my mind is whirring, wondering where I could have gone wrong. I checked the math so many times. How could this have happened? How did I miss by so much?

A news alert dings in the corner of the screen (strange choice, by my host, to have those turned on...but anyway...) and I click. Oh, no. No, no.

It's not just me, who missed. Not just my own transformation I got wrong. It's all of them, everywhere. How many people have I swapped between bodies? They're reporting thousands, but still counting. Could it be millions? Billions?

I cradle my unfamiliar brow in my unfamiliar hands.

How am I going to fix this? How can I possibly fix this, when it's gone so horribly, horribly wrong?

I peer at the clock between my fingers, calculating the difference in time zones, my stomach roiling, my heart pounding a drum in this far-flung jungle.

It's only an hour until my daughter's execution is scheduled.

I don't know who is about to die.

Her?

Someone innocent in her place?

Who have I sentenced to death?

I tried, my darling, I tried. It was supposed to be me.

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r/overcomposer