Jeff Daniels sighed in frustration. Another boring day at school.
How did this happen? How did his life become so dull and repetitive? Unlike most teenage boys in High School, Jeff didn't really have any close friends, he didn't really belong to any cliques, he wasn't cool enough to be popular and he wasn't lame enough to be a loser. He felt like the least exciting person alive, and the universe seemed to treat him as such.
His summer break had been so boring and uneventful that he had actually started to relish the idea of going back to school, but one week in and he was already sick of it. Something needed to change.
These thoughts repeated on loop in Jeff's head as he made his way home. It was only a 20 minute walk, but it always felt like an eternity. His little sister Emily would probably be hanging out a friend's place, and his mom worked late these days, so he would have the the whole house to himself and absolutely nothing to do. Wonderful.
Jeff walked by the same old houses, crossed the same old roads, got barked at by the same old dogs... then he noticed something new.
"The Magic Shop?"
Yes, that's what the sign over the tiny, rickety building said. The shop looked like it had been scooped right out of Victorian times and was oddly squished, as if it were designed to fit between two larger buildings. But it was simply sitting there in the middle of an empty lot. Or what used to be an empty lot. Surely Jeff would remember seeing something like this, but as far as he could tell, it had popped up overnight. He had to investigate.
Stepping inside, he found the shop to be even more cramped on the inside. There was barely enough standing room for two or three people and bizarre and ancient looking objects were stacked in dusty piles, some as high as the ceiling. A pungent aroma of incense invaded his nostrils and burned his sinuses. One thing stood out as fairly new: a simple cardboard sign that read "CLOSING DOWN SALE. EVERYTHING MUST GO!"
Closing down? But hadn't this place just opened?
He was startled out of his confusion when he suddenly noticed a hunched old man with long scraggly hair standing behind the counter. Had he always been there? How could he have not noticed until now? The number of questions swimming through Jeff's head just kept multiplying.
"See anything you like, my boy?" the old man spoke softly.
Jeff peered around at the dusty objects: A cracked crystal orb that seemed to blow faintly from within, a snake preserved in a jar of murky liquid, what appeared to be a mummified hand decorated with dozens of ornate rings. As strange as these items were, their prices were perhaps even more outrageous. $20,000 for a "wishing rune"? And that was after the sale discount!
"Um..." Jeff smiled awkwardly, "Do you have anything in the twenty dollar range?"
The old man simply smiled and gestured to a small basket on the counter labelled "Mildly Cursed". This got a nervous chuckle out of Jeff.
Unfortunately the items in the basket didn't look especially inviting. A swollen red eyeball, appropriately labeled "The Bloody Eye" was on sale for $12. A shriveled, unidentifiable root vegetable called "Nightmare Wort" was listed for $32. The only appealing item Jeff could spot was a jagged blue stone without a label.
"What's this stone?" he asked, presenting it to the shopkeeper.
The old man scratched his chin and smiled. "Ah yes, a mischievous little thing. I thought I threw it out for good! I've sold it to many people but they always want to return it in the end. Such a bother."
"But... what is it exactly?" Jeff repeated. Was the old man just stalling for time so that he could think of an exotic description for this rock?
"Ah, right, yes! I call that one the temporary life swap stone. I can't pronounce the true name for the life of me. Welsh, I believe."
Jeff felt a powerful urge to roll his eyes. Still, this was somewhat amusing.
"Simply place the stone in the palm of your hand, grip it tightly and close your eyes. You will instantly be transported into the life of someone else from anywhere in the world! You will retain your body, but others will treat you exactly as if you were the person you replaced. The time limit is quite unpredictable, I believe anywhere between a day and a week. When the time is up, you will be instantly returned to your old life. Oh and don't worry, nobody will remember you suddenly disappearing and reappearing, when the duration is up the stone will 'fill in the blanks' of everyone's memory so that nothing seems out of place. It's quite a creative little item"
This was obviously ridiculous and impossible, but a part of Jeff desperately wanted it to be true. At the very least, it was a cool looking stone.
"And how much is it?"
"Ah. Hm. No label on it, eh? Well how much did you say you had? Twenty dollars?" The old man grinned and extended his palm.
Jeff sighed. This was so obviously ridiculous, but it was still the most interesting thing to happen in a long time.
"Okay, I'll take it." Jeff said, placing a $20 bill in the old shopkeeper's hand and pocketing the stone.
"Thank you, my boy. Do come again... err, if you can find us again, that is."
Jeff turned away from the old man and stepped out into the fresh air. He felt a mix of emotions. Mostly he felt like a complete sucker, but at the same time he was incredibly eager to try out his new toy. He knew the chances of it actually working were a million to one, but that tiny fraction of a chance was enough to get him excited. His walk home turned into a brisk jog. As soon as he got home he headed straight to his room, dropped his backpack on the floor and pulled out the stone. Following the old man's instructions, he placed it in the palm of his hand, clenched his fist tightly and closed his eyes, praying that he would get to try out someone else's life for a while.
Jeff had already forgotten that the item had been placed in the "Mildly Cursed" bin.
While the stone really was a genuine magical item, there was a bit of a catch. It had a personality. A personality with a rather sadistic sense of humor.
Anyone who used its power to temporarily experience another life would find themselves in a rather unpleasant situation, or at the very least an embarrassing one. The stone would often try to saddle its users with permanent consequences of their temporary life swap, and it had become quite creative over hundreds of years of use.