“Omigod, what have I done?” gushed Megan with the voice of Jared, the boy she harbored a secret crush on. “Mom?... Dad?... Alan?... I'm so sorry!”
“It's all right, sweetie,” said Steve in the chirpy, bubbly, feminine voice of his own secretary. He blushed with embarrassment, looked down at his own cleavage in the tight, leopard-print top he now wore, and finally sighed with frustration. “You had no idea that strange machine would do this.”
“I don't think you should play with it any more,” said Janet in a gruff, low-pitched tone. “There's no telling how much worse you might make things, honey.”
“Oh... okay then,” sighed Megan, gently putting the device down on the floor.
“Well, what do we do now?” asked Alan in the girlish, sing-song voice of his own girlfriend. “I don't want to spend the rest of my life as Katey! And I don't even know who all you guys wound up as.”
“I seem to be in Audrey's body,” mumbled Steve. “The... uh... new girl at work.”
“I'm Jared,” sighed a clearly embarrassed Megan. “Just... just a boy from school that... y'know... nobody special or... anything.”
“I dunno who I am,” said Janet. “Oh, wait. The name tag says 'Ted'... oh, wait! I know who I am! I've become that nice man from the electric company who came out and installed that new power box in our basement last week.”
“Why did we become these people?” asked Alan.
Secretly, each member of the family knew the reason – they each were attracted to these people. A fact none (other than Alan) was willing to admit.
“Uh... just random, I guess,” muttered Steve. “Look, let's just get some sleep and... and... and maybe in the morning, things will be normal.”
Each member of the family found an corner of the room to curl up and rest in... but no one got any shut eye. After a restless night, the family found themselves in the same predicament as before.
“Guess we might be stuck this way,” admitted Steve. “Anyone want to try playing with that gizmo again?”
No one in the family was game.
“Well, let's take it with us,” said Steve, gingerly picking up the device off the ground and awkwardly putting it in his purse. “It may be our own way of changing back to ourselves. But for now, let's just hit the road and put as many miles between us and this creepy house as possible!”
Silently, the family exited the decaying Victorian manor, climbed back into the car, and took off down the road. After a quiet journey of several hours, they arrived back at their own house... and discovered the lights were on and silhouettes of several people were visible through the window.
“Burglars!” yelled Janet, surprised at the loud, dark, growl of her own voice.
“Maybe it's our old bodies,” suggested Alan. “Only with Katey and all the others now trapped in 'em.”
“With all the weirdness that's happened,” sighed Steve. “I wouldn't be surprised by anything at this point. Come on, everybody. We'd better go and ring the doorbell. Whoever is inside our house, they're bound to view us as strangers. I know this is weird and humiliating, everybody... but... well, let's just go to the front door and get this over with.”