Shots. Lots of warning shots. My laughter echoed through the blue, red-lit night. My lungs burned and my shoulder was warm with blood and pain. But I kept running. The thought of the angry, shooting cops and the beautiful red of blood on my skin and clothes made the adrenaline shoot through my bloodstream like a drug. Another loud laugh came from my lips.

And then... I broke down.

What happened? I looked ahead. Lilo. Haha. The boy, whose parents' blood was on my hands, had taken his father's small revolver and shot me straight in the chest. Ah... Is the child crying? How he trembles! How pathetic. They would have died soon anyway. If not because of the debt they owed to me, then by the hand of someone else. Such people know no other way to make money than underground. He should be glad to have gotten rid of them. Or at least be happy to have landed a hit on me.

I'm dizzy... Why is everyone so loud?!

The ground is cold. I feel the vibration of the many shoes running across the asphalt, getting closer and closer.

I have to get up and keep running. I would have to... But I'm too tired.

Everything blurs before my eyes and the last thing the horrified onlookers and policemen hear from me is a last short laugh.

I would have paid a lot to see her expressions, but my vision became blacker than the raven-black hair that had fallen in front of my eyes, and I was sure that this was my last breath. I will probably end up in hell and the devil will make me live through all my misdeeds again. Yes, that doesn't sound too bad, does it?

"-aster? Master?" a moan escaped my lips. "MASTER!", "So loud... Shut up!", I opened my eyes. I'm alive! I'm alive haha! Everything hurt, but that doesn't matter! Besides, I'm not in jail!

...

Wait. The wounds in my chest and shoulder are gone. What? How? Still, my whole body hurts! Feels like my bones are shifting... Shit and where am I anyway? No prison, no hospital... Just damn hard ground and a lot of debris around me. And who owns that annoying voice?

The last question was soon answered when a skinny boy threw himself around my neck. Shit that hurt! The gaunt little one seemed to notice my twitching and darted backwards. "M-m-Masteeeeer", God now he's howling too. And why does this three-cheese-stacks high one call me Master?! "I told you so! Stupid idea! Stupid, stupid, stupid idea!"

"Hey! Do I know you?!"

The boy started upwards. "A-But it's me, isn't it?! Mallore! Don't you remember?"

Well, it seems to fit...

"Stop screaming, my head is killing me! Say what's going on here!"

"Master er-"

"And let go of the "master"!"

"Ah... o-ok... Mhh ma-the experiment-seems to have gone wrong and-"

"What experiment?"

Mallore tilted his head, his eyes showing his growing confusion. "T-the experiment! Your biggest goal! Did they hit their heads?" he gasped in horror "Are you dizzy? How many fingers am I holding up? Oh God, oh God. Wait! I-I-I’ll get a healer!", the little one turned around and wanted to run. What am I going to do if you leave me here? I reached for his shirt sleeve, which was much too wide.

"Leave them! Just explain everything!"

"O-ok"

Mallore had led me to a small hut near the place where I woke up and instructed me to lie down in a much too small, rancid-looking bed. There was a dirty mirror hanging at the entrance, you were practically forced to look at when you entered, and what I saw was not black short hair framing pale skin, but curly, fiery red, long hair that showed off the sand-colored skin of this body. Yes, this body not only feels different, it is also a completely different one... God damn it! The headache only got worse! As soon as I lay down, he started talking.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

... Yep, I seem to have swapped bodies or something.

This seems to be some kind of medieval fantasy world. According to Mallore the owner of this body was an alchemist. Her goal, however, had nothing to do with the things the common alchemists’ in this world were interested in, no, it was about eternal life. Immortality. She referred to the experiment after which I emerged in this body as "her big breakthrough" and was sure that she could finally stay eternally young. At first, it sounds like something out of an old fairy tale that has gone through a whisper game far too often. Then the plan doesn't even seem to have worked, because I now have your body bitch and I have no idea where you disappeared to. It can't be my body, that one was pretty fucked up...

The name of this body was Cybele Lilith of Atropos.

Or in short, way too long.

Hey, this is my chance to give myself a new name! I've never liked my old name, Nisha, anyway...

Mhhhh, name, name... Malina? Well, there's no one here to yell at me... Ok, I'm here to yell at me. Hahh, let's stay with Lilith for now. The ground I woke up on was the former ground on which our grand alchemist's estate stood. So now she has no body and no house.

Wait... I DON'T HAVE A HOUSE! You bitch! If I find you, you can remove your make-up of infinity! I clenched my fist so hard that my knuckles started to hurt. Mallore looked at me anxiously and I quickly let go. It would be better not to scare him so much that he runs away from me. After all he is my only source of information. Unfortunately for God.

"I-it's not so bad mast... L-Lilith...", heyyyy he's already got the hang of it. "You can stay in the humble hut that you gave me...",

…what the hell?! I looked around the small hut again. You couldn't even call it a hut, it looked like a converted outhouse... His "master" seemed to have really... "loved" him. I rolled my eyes.

"Wait... I gave you that name too?"

"YES! That was the best day of my life! You looked down at me and said that to me! Tears of gratitude came to my eyes, and since then I have been your devoted servant! That's the least I could do for the generosity you showed to this lowly, unworthy being!"

Poor boy.

"Tell me, is Lili-... Do I come from a country where the spoken language sounds something like this?", I speak a few words in French. Well, the few I can.

"Yes! So you do still remember your homeland! That's good, Master," he slapped his hand over his mouth, "L-Lilith"

"Good boy..."

A sigh escaped my lips. Somehow I felt sorry for the little one. Probable Lilith had just insulted and he had taken it as a naming... I looked at him sympathetically.

"Ok, now the most important thing!"

He tilted his head.

"Is there just the two of us?"

"Yes"

"Do we have money... or something you can buy stuff with?"

"Ehm...", he became quiet and I looked at him sharply.

"What?!"

"D-the go-gold was in the mansion and..." he looked out of the window, glassless, while nervously playing with his fingers.

“I see...", seriously, when I find the old one, she's more than dead!

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked as I sat up. "You talk funny and..."

"I'm fine!", I slapped away the hand he held out to me and regretted it the next moment because his eyes glazed over again. If the pain in this body didn't drive me crazy, the boy certainly will.

"I don't like your name anymore. From now on, you'll be... ah, your name is Lilo! Understood.", he blinked away the tears. "O-ok."

"How does one get money? I mean gold?"

"Mostly through work."

“And how did Lilith come to be- How did I get money?"

"Your parents were very rich and left you a lot of gold after they died."

"And all the money left behind was in the house?"

He nodded.

So this witch had to never work a day in her miserable life to stay afloat? And the rich parents fucking died, so I can't tap into them anymore. I grabbed the wood at the end of the bed so hard that it splintered and Lilo scrambled back.

"What do you want with the gold?"

"No,… what? Survive! How else are we going to get a decent house and food, huh?!"

"I-I can also build a house for you and I can try to go hunting!"

I raised an eyebrow as I surveyed him from head to toe. His arms were so thin that you could see bones, and he was very small. Underweight. I almost started laughing.

"Good joke!", I laughed but Lilo seemed to mean it... "Boy, you don't believe that you can, do you?"

"Y-yes! I can do it!"

"No. Shut up. Where can you earn gold?"

"Uh... in the city."

"And what does the work here consist of?"

"You could sell potions... But then you could be arrested... ah, you can go monster hunting, too!"

"MONSTER?!", that's a real fantasy world, isn't it?

God damn it!

"Where's the nearest town?"

Lilo crawled under the bed and pulled out a card. He rolled it up on the bed next to me and pointed to a point in the middle of it.

"Here! That's Lumiya."

"Yeah, whatever. Lilo... And where are we?"

"There." He pointed to triangles, which are supposed to represent a forest. This wouldn't be a problem in itself if this forest and the city didn't have mountains sitting between them! "So we have to go through a mountain range?"

"...theoretically"

"What do you mean by theoretically?"

“U-usually when You go to town... You use a teleportation spell..."

"Do you know how it works?" a forced smile played on my lips.

"N-No"

A scream escaped my lips and Lilo was frightened so much he jumped and fell backwards.

"Are people walking through this forest?", I helped Lilo back up.

"Sometimes..."

"OK, so it can’t be that dangerous. That's what we're going to do and listen to me carefully. I'm not going to repeat myself, okay?"

He nodded eagerly.