Maria woke with a start. A dream? She was still in the hospital, but the room was empty and dark now. 'I have to go see my mom,' she thought trying to sit up. Pain shot through her left arm and rib cage and a groan escaped her lips. "Ah, crap that hurts," a husky voice came out repeating her thoughts. Not a dream. She was really stuck in this body. But how had she ended up there? How did she go from being run over to ending up in the hospital in a body that wasn't hers? This 'Toni' person. Was this just a case of mistaken identity? Had she been so badly mangled that she'd been mistaken for Toni? A coma. That would explain her voice. Until she looked down, a small bulge coming up from under the covers. 'This can't be real. That's not natural. No. No. No. I need to wake up now. This isn't even funny,' she thought, her heart rate increasing and alerting the nurses. The door flew open and she screamed. The scream was certainly girly enough, but it still wasn't hers. The nurses rushed over and injected the IV with a sedative. "It's ok Toni, just rest, you're ok. You went through something very traumatic, but you'll be out of here by tomorrow," they said reassuringly as her vision swam again.
The next day Toni was discharged the next morning. Toni was told the ribs would heal just fine, but Toni would need lots of physical therapy for the bones in the left hand that were shattered from being stomped on and kicked repeatedly. Maria could only nod her head wondering what Toni had been through to deserve this and wondering that if she was now stuck in Toni's body, what had become of hers? Was her body empty and dead? Did it just disappear? What would her mom think? Where was her mom? She really ought to apologize to her, but if she tried to now, in this body, it would probably just make her mom have an episode. That or she'd have the cops called on her for being some sort of creep. The doctors got a cab ready for her and wheeled her outside helping her in as she waited for the long ride to a home she'd never been to before. Perhaps there was enough of Toni's memories in tact in the mind to help her around her strange new surroundings.