When Sia looked into the mirror, she stared long and hard.
"Aria dear. Lock said this is the fifth time you are using the restroom. Are you sure you are alright?"
Again with the Aria dear.
Sia called, "my stomach is upset."
"I am coming in…" softly the knob turned and the doctor stepped in. She looked at her curiously, checked the sink, checked the pot and looked like she wanted to ask question Sia didn't know how to answer.
Sia spoke before the doctor could. "Doctor. I think something is wrong with me. First these are not my clothes, then, these are not my nails. The date looks right. Are you sure, your son didn't bring someone else in and dress her up as Aria."
Even as she said it, she didn't believe her own words. For if she did, that meant, a random guy just changed her clothes. She didn't want to think about it until it was confirmed.
The doctor blinked for a moment, blank. Then she asked, "I am sure that blow did not hit any of the brain nerves but it did. We might have to take you to a hospital."
Sia had not considered this but she was sure, she was Sia and not Aria and her friend, her fiance would be looking for her. She could prove she was Sia.
She took a deep breath. Sia didn't understand what was going on to be able to explain it to the doctor.
"I am Sia. Sia L. I am going to be 25 next month. I work for a foreign company and came down to work some things out with my family. I happened to be kidnapped but your sons seems to have found me. What confuses me though is that how I ended up looking like this."
The doctor stared at her for a moment, looking her up and down. Surely she was dressed unlike herself in all black to the point even her eyes shades were in deep thick of black. Her hair were different and her height was taller. Sia had wore about four inch or higher heels all her life to be taller, to have more presence in a room. But now she was. There was no way one incident could shoot her height this much unless she was being experimented on. She doubted that.
When the doctor did not say anything, inching out of the bathroom, Sia followed silently. She took the phone from the table and saw the photo of three friends, her own face alongside her rescuers Lock and Ke, smiling at the camera, she felt an inexplicable feeling in her chest. She put it away, unable to explain it.
Something was wrong, it was as if she had replaced someone else because how else could she explain the lack of birthmark on her body, or the height, or even the lack of any wound on the top of her head. Or the countless scars.
As she settled back into the clinic's hard bed, the doctor checked her pupils, her mouth, checked her head for wounds and reexamined the wound on the back of her neck. Finally, when the doctor told her to wait, she asked, "can I borrow your phone to make a call?"
The doctor hesitated a moment before passing her phone. For a moment she paused. People, usually in these situations called their family. But she had no one to call. She could call her brother, Kai, but she didn't want to worry him. Nor could she explain what was going on without making the situation worse. The only person would be Mo. Since he couldn't reach her, had he called the police? Would the police be able to help her? Did her family try to look for her quietly, afraid, they will be on the news again?
"Can't remember?" the doctor asked softly. Sia smiled instinctively.
Sia dialed the only number she knew was safe to call. The only person who was her partner in the grand scheme of things. Besides her second brother's number, it was the only other number she had memorised. She called.
The phone rang, once. Sia didn't even begin to hold her breath when a familiar voice came from the other end.
"Hello?"
At the same time, the screen on Aria's phone lit up. And her own number flashed in it.
One trip to the bathroom and Aria knew something was wrong. The more she stared at the reflection in the mirror, the more the feeling grew. Her entire being was clean and light. She didn't like looking at herself like this. The slight hint of radiance that the bulb flashed on her light makeup skin made her look beautiful and the sight made her skin crawl. Her eyes moved away from the face. Her hair was wrong, the length, the perfect symmetry at the end, the pretty manicure on her nails and the most unexplainable one- her height.
Unable to look at herself, as if the old her had come back, she decided to check other things. Sitting on the toilet, she raised the soft hospital gown and checked her thighs- no marks. She lifted the whole thing to her chest and checked her side, no scar.
Surprise, shock. She quickly went to the mirror and checked her face more carefully. She leaned into the mirror and removed her hair from around her temples. No mark close to the eye.
This was not her body. She touched the wound on her head, feeling her breath short. Had she been in a coma and just woken up. But that wouldn't explain the height or the marks.
Or she was dead and this was another body? It sounded too outrageous to herself.
She looked at her face again, forcing the bad memories aside, focusing on specific details. The eyebrows were thinner, well cared for, the lashes were pushed up, as if someone had put them through a curler. There was no way a hospital would do this. This was, for sure, not her body.
No wonder, the doctor called her Sia once.
Aria shuddered violently, unable to fully comprehend between the true and false in her own thoughts. The face was her but it was still not her.
The loud knock on the door, pulled her out.
Once back on the bed, Aria began to look around. The room was spacious. If she was Sia, if and only if, then where was the real Sia? The woman was rich, or her friend was, to be able to afford a big private room. There was a phone with a big of girly embellishments and reached for it. The man placed it in her hands silently, slightly anxious and worried but unable to say anything.
She looked at the locked screen and turned to him, "can you open it?"
He frowned and opened it for her, taking a seat by her bed. "If you will open the gallery, you will find some photos of yourself…"
Aria, instead opened the keypad and dialed her own number. If she was Sia, then were was Aria? Did she die? Who took her body? Her phone? If her phone wasn't picked up, she'd call Loc next.
She pressed the green button and put the phone to her ear just when another phone on the bedside table rang.
Aria's heart jumped to her throat. She saw the number on the screen before the man picked up. Why was Lock's mother calling her saviour? Did they find the real Sia? Aria watched like a hawk as he supposed saviour put his phone to his ear.
"Hello?"
She didn't hear what the other side said because she heard the first ring in her ear. Her own phone was active.
"If this is prank call it is not funny." Mo snapped into his phone, not daring to raise his voice in front of Sia. Sia brows knit together, an expression he had never seen on her.
"Mo listen. Just…. I told you to meet me at seven. How would anyone know what we whispered before parting if I am not Sia?"
Mo looked at the Sia in front of her, and grit his teeth. "She is in front of me, whoever you are, I will find you and sue you."
The line went dead and the Sia's eyes moved away from him, wide with surprise, staring straight into nothingness.
"Who are you?" Sia asked Mo. Mo stared at her for a long moment, feeling tight with worry. What was he doing? Even if she didn't remember him, she was right here in front of him. He had managed to reach there in time.
Sia's eyes flickered to him uncertainly, then she put the phone on speaker and casually put it on the bed. It was an unknown number. It was ringing. Then the same woman he had just hung up on, picked up Sia's call.
"Mo. Listen to me. I AM SIA. I…" the woman on the other end spoke and Mo frowned. Before any questions could arise in his head, Sia said, "and I am Aria."
Silence.
Mo felt goosebumps rise on his arms, spreading all the way from top to bottom. For a moment he felt cold. Did he pick up the wrong person? But then, he looked at her face closely. She was Sia. The same old Sia
The woman on the other end of the call had calmed down. Her next words came uncertainly. "It seems like… um.. Feels like, though I cannot be sure. But it looks like something is off between me and this… person you have rescued. I think you rescued the wrong person, perhaps. Because I am Sia and this is…"
"Aria." Sia said. Mo felt cold. Could two person look so identical?
If this Sia was Aria, then were was the real Sia? He looked at the call, still on speaker. Silence surrounding them tightly.
Aria filled that gap, "I am Aria. It doesn't look like you rescued the wrong person, it looks like I became the wrong person. There is no other explanation other than that we exchanged bodies."
"What?" a handful of people spoke at once. Someone was on the other side, close to the woman claiming to be Sia. They spoke at the same time as him.
Aria sat up straight but her head must have felt dizzy because she shook it to create focus, then closed her eyes. "Put the phone on speaker. That's Lock and Ke. My friends."
Mohan looked at Sia's face. Unsure of what to believe, he looked at Sia, or Aria. If this was Aria, it explained why she looked so lost. But how did Sia know this other person, and their friends? Was it someone she met abroad? But if so, why would she pull something like this on him? No she wouldn't.
But what they were saying was ridiculous.
On the other side, the proclaiming Sia whispered, "this is your friend, Aria."
Then the woman in front of her opened her mouth and sprayed a string of colorful words, her anger barely contained.
It hit his instantly. This cannot be Sia. It hit him then. It really was a different woman. It was not Sia, but Aria.
Sia put the phone on speaker and Sia said, "this is your friend, Aria."
Lock frowned and looked at the unknown number on his mother's phone. Aria spoke from the other end. "You drying piece of meat. Calling you a dickhead would be an insult to the dick. Your bony ass only knows how to sit in front of a screen all day and still you couldn't even find the right address? Did you know, I could have died? I think I did die. I am not even sure where I am or who I am. I just had a head surgery. I am gonna skin you and feed you to the crows and roast any piece of meat remaining."
Sia looked up at the man in front of him who had gone from confusion to horror in an instant. "You bitch. What are you talking about? Aria is right in front of me. She is fine."
"I am Sia." Sia interjected, "the one talking to you is Aria."
Lock's brows pulled together. He looked down at the phone as if he could see her. This gave her an idea, "why don't we do a video call?"
But Aria wasn't done and her suggestion was lost amidst the angry outburst. "You dare call me a bitch. So what if Aria is in front of you or not. Did you even check the address properly before giving it to me. If it was anyone else in my place, they would be dead ten times over. You sent me to my death. You bloody moron."
Lock looked something between guilty and angry.
"I checked. That waaaas the address. How could I have not? I check on the maps and street views and everything. It was the address. Though it was dissolate, it was the address." Lock defended half heartedly.
Silence.
Mo quickly took advantage of the silence to ask, "Sia? Are you really Sia?"
"Yes. I do not know how I am here or if this is really but…" she hesitated to say the ridiculous words,
but the more we talk, the surer I am, that this body is not mine. I am Aria but I am not. I am Sia. I am taller. And I have wounds in the wrong place. I remember being hit on the top of my head but I barely have a bruise on the back of my neck."
"That's where I was hit while trying to run away. Did you… by any chance, meet the old and frail looking driver along with a big burly man who had a hammer?" Aria asked.
Sia almost stopped breathing. "That's…" she was reluctant to call her father's name, "that's the family driver."
Silence.
Mo said, "isn't it far too coincidental that the two of you went there at the same time and came back… like this?"
"It is. I remember that the driver looked at someone in the car. He looked surprised. But he made an instant decision and tried to silence me. It must have been you in the car." Aria said from the other end. Sia almost stopped breathing. What coincident was this? Someone who looked just like her went to a wrong address just when she was about to be killed or worse.
"What now?" Lock said at the same time as Sia asked, "why did you go there?"
Sia and Lock looked at each other.
On the other side, Aria and Mo looked at each other. Mo couldn't help notice the difference in expression every time Sia, or perhaps, now Aria looked at him. It was still the same face but the reassurance and moral support those eyes used to seek from him were all replaced by questions and doubts.
"We should all meet up. These are things we cannot talk on the phone."
"Where are you guys? We will come to you," Lock said before he paused, "wait. Can you travel? How's the bump feeling?"
"It's… alright. I can go." Mo smiled at the hesitation in Sia's tone. It really did sound like Sia on the other end.
When the line went dead, Aria picked up the phone and looked at him, "address?"
Mo extended his hand. "I will send it."
If this really was someone else, he should let her meddle with Sia's phone.
Aria, pressed her lips together as her eyes dropped in a flat look, "my hands are fine."
Mo watched carefully as he recited the address. Aria was as reserved at Sia, which is why he hadn't picked up the differences. She looked like Sia but the way she acted, was nothing like Sia.
For a moment, just a moment, he wondered what Aria really looked like.