When Anthony touched Charlie's hand with the medallion, nothing happened. Anthony thought that this had to be a fluke, so he tried touching Charlie's hand with the medallion once more but it was in vain. Anthony stared at Charlie open-mouthed and was in shock. Anthony was one second too late to reverse his swap with Charlie. He had not made it in time. He would be stuck as Charlie forever.
The shock sent tears to Anthony's eyes and he bitterly wept as Charlie and Gino got out of the car and tried comforting Anthony, not knowing what had just happened.
Charlie and Gino led Anthony to his house and the three of them sat on the sofa. As Anthony was crying, his thoughts were scattered and he did not know how to convey his situation to Charlie and Gino. After all, who would believe that he and Charlie had swapped bodies? The only thing that Anthony could do was explain his new life to Charlie and Gino, minus the medallion of Zulu.
Once Anthony's tears had slowed down, he told Charlie and Gino that he hated his life; that he had no other friends, no loving parents, no clean clothes, no home cooked meals and a dirty house. This information gave Charlie and Gino grim expressions. They had not realized the severity of Anthony's situation and the extent of his unhappiness and frustration. They whispered to one another, nodded and both decided that they would aid Anthony in any way they could and help him pick up the pieces of his life.
After this, Charlie handed Gino a broom and Gino silently swept the floor while Charlie washed Anthony's clothes. Anthony continued sitting on the sofa, blankly staring at the wall while shaking his head in despair. He had lost his body, life, family, friends and his home. His world had crashed in the span of a day.
In a few hours, Anthony's home was the cleanest that it had ever been, with fleshly laundered clothes. Anthony was also wearing clean clothes, had newly brushed teeth and just recently finished showering. He was glad that Charlie and Gino had left him to gather his thoughts. Anthony didn't think that he could stand being given grooming and cleaning advice from Charlie of all people.
Shortly after, it was getting late, so Gino invited Anthony to his home. Anthony thought for a moment before accepting the invite and packed some clothes and his laptop before heading to Charlie's car.
During the ride, Anthony asked Charlie if they could stop by a hair salon so that he could clean up his unkempt hair. Neither Charlie nor Gino argued with Anthony's request and they continued off to the nearest salon.
At the salon, Anthony requested that the barber give him a short but stylish hairstyle and the barber obliged. Once Anthony's haircut had finished, Charlie bought Anthony some hair gel so that he could continue styling his hair if he wanted to. The trio then walked out of the salon and back into the car and headed off to Gino's house.
At the house, Charlie and Gino were silently talking about Anthony while Anthony was in another room doing additional research about the medallion of Zelu. Through his searching, Anthony discovered an old and obscure website talking about the medallion. There were additional facts, rules and uses and recorded history about the medallion. A few things caught Anthony's attention as he was skimming though the website.
First, the grace period for swapping back bodies could be prolonged by swapping with another person. This differed from what he originally read about only being able to swap back with the same person. It seemed that over time, facts and records about the medallion had been lost or destroyed.
The next thing that had caught Anthony's attention was that there was a record about people that had swapped bodies with one another and if they were able to switch back. The website had records of guys swapping bodies with one other going back hundreds of years. At the top of the record was his and Charlie's names, photos, details about the swap and the ending results. The ending result stated that Anthony and Charlie were stuck in each other's bodies with Charlie being none the wiser.
Anthony didn't know how the website had updated, but one thing was for sure: the website had a supernatural feel about it but that did not bother him. In fact, nothing else could bother him today. This day was the worst that Anthony had ever had. Anthony just shook his head and continued reading.
The third thing that Anthony had discovered was that even though he and Charlie could not swap back with one another, he could still use the medallion to swap bodies with another person and that not all had been lost. Apparently, if one were to involve two others in the swap, the four of them could continue swapping until everyone was in their correct bodies. This new information gave Anthony a glimmer of hope and a dark thought made its way into his mind.
Anthony was at a crossroads now. The way he saw it, he had a few choices. One, Anthony could continue living as Charlie and live and die as him. Two, Anthony could swap bodies with a desirable target and doom that man to living life as Charlie. Three, Anthony could swap with one other guy before swapping with Charlie to get his original body back, but leave Charlie and that man in the wrong bodies. And four, Anthony could gather two other people and somehow convince them to swap with him and Charlie until everyone was in the right bodies. The fourth option would be a stretch and the hardest to implement. Last but not least, Anthony could live life as Charlie for now but use the medallion to swap from one body to another to prolong his own existence. After all, he no longer had anything left to lose, right?
A sinister smile slowly crept onto Antony's new face. The wicked expression contrasted with his youthful looks. Anthony had made up his mind about what option he was going with.