Third Person's POV

Mia and Charolette closed their eyes as they stood drenched in the torrent rain on the same deserted highway where Mia came in her car, the night they swapped places.

"Do we chant something?" Charolette asked , eyes still closed.

"Like in the movies?" Mia enquired peeking slightly and then closing her eyes shut.

"I don't know, maybe." Both of the girls knew deep down that this was the stupidest idea and it wasn't gonna work. After standing there for two hours, they still were alive, conscious and very much quivering. They huffed in disappointment as the last hope of getting back to their normal lives, according to Charolette, had disappeared.

"Let's go to my mom's house first thing tomorrow." Mia finally announced her decision. She had an inkling that her mother might know something about Nathan and her past.

"But why. I mean what's the use," Charolette rolled her eyes at the seemingly useless suggestion while sipping her hot chocolate near the window of Mia's spacious living room.

Mia sighed as she told her everything she herself knew about the matter. Charolette's eyes widened in curiosity rather than shock which surprised Mia. "Wow!" She managed in between her sips and instantly agreed to meet her mother.

____________

Mia knocked the door for the nth time when a middle aged lady who smiled at her, "Yes?"

"Mom?" And with that Mia engulfed her mother in a warm hug, unaware that she was in a stranger's body and her mother taken aback at the intrusion.

"Excuse me?" She pushed her as Mia realised what she had done as her mother chided, " who are you?"

Charolette had parked the car by now and was behind the two women when the middle aged lady saw her and an instant smile appeared on her wrinkled features.

"Ah, Mia .... My baby," the woman opened her arms making way to Charolette who was frozen in her spot with an awkward look on her face, as she engulfed her in a bear hug.

"Wow... Hey mother," Charolette cringed inwardly as the woman had squeezed the life out of her and she patted so called mother on the back weirdly. Mia couldn't help but feel jealous.

The house was a simple one, yet spacious with a nice lawn in the front and a garden with a barbeque in the back.

Both the girls explained the situation hesitantly hoping that Martha would believe them as they were welcomed with a cup of tea in the living room.
Martha cocked an eyebrow, almost laughed when the part where they stood two hours in rain came and finally sighed as they concluded their speech and Mia who was in Charolette's body asked if her dreams were real.

"They are real." These simple words, though she had saw them coming, knocked the air out of Mia's lungs as a whole string of questions and perplexities boggled her mind at the same instant.

"What is it, dear?" Martha asked her apparent daughter quite nervous about how she was going to explain everything once the string of questions start.

"I don't know where to start. Why don't you, mom!" Mia uttered in a betrayal jaw tightening as if she had been lied to, her whole life. And she was right.

"Dear, I think it's time you know. " Martha sank in her chair defeated as Mia nodded for her to continue. Sensing the tension between the mother and the daughter, Charolette excused herself giving the two the space that they needed.

"Well, you have a power," to which Mia gave a puzzled look. Martha continued ignoring her glares, "You see, your father is not your biological father. Your biological father.... was a beast... He was a criminal and I did everything I could to run away, far away from him. He didn't know I was pregnant with you neither did I plan on telling him, he would've killed both of us without any second thought." She sniffed, trying to control her tears as she continued.

"When I was four months pregnant, I met your dad, Matthew. He was a sunshine in my dull life. And he loved you way more than even I ever could. I thought I finally had a family I ever dreamed of. I was beyond happy. But soon after you turned three, your curiosity got the best out of us. Until then, we thought that you were normal just like me. We soon realised that you were gifted, just as your father."

"You'd be in different places, different mornings not knowing how you had travelled. We thought it was sleep walking but one morning when you weren't anywhere, our fears came true. You had watched kangaroos and koalas on TV a night before. It was a hard two week search but we finally found you in one of the national parks of Australia. We tried training you and it worked but thing got worse after you turned nine. You had starting body swapping. You turned up as a different person in your bed every morning without even realising it."

"Sometimes it'd be days before you swapped back. How could a nine year old like yourself know how to control those things willfully? And we didn't have any idea either. It was getting really difficult to keep you away from limelight as the neighborhood realised your powers. Me and Matthew decided to contact the best hypnotherapist in the country and make you forget your powers. It was risky but not more than the fear of loosing you day in, day out."

"You were in a coma for three days. Those were the worst three days of my life. Your mind had responded horribly to the therapy and their was little hope. But... You woke up. You were always a fighter. Even though you forgot everything, I thanked the heavens that you had forgotten your powers too. We moved here instantly and started a new life with you."

After a long silence,

"What about Nathan?" Mia asked gulping the contents of the water bottle still trying process and accept the new revelation.

"You went to medical school in New York. That's when you met him. You both were so in love. " Martha said with dreamy eyes reminiscing.

"Although he spent only a few days with us, I knew he was right for you. I don't know what happened, you never told me, but a year later, one day, you came running home to me sobbing like anything. I tried to ask you but you kept chanting that you had lost him and that his father was a bastard. You were horrible the next few days and would wake up in the middle of night with pain and convulsions, the same you had whenever you body swapped."

"We were afraid that subconsciously you would do it again and if it happened, as the doctor had told us when you were nine, it could be fatal for you, how?... I didn't know. So, I convinced you to get the therapy done again. Getting therapy again was equally dangerous and leaving you like that wasn't a choice. We got the therapy, you survived, forgot most of the New York that mattered and it was a win win. We transferred you to Miami, next semester so you could start your life again..... Afresh."

Martha concluded her speech to see Mia who was pale and then a moment later, limp.