Karyn was just arriving home when a shiver ran down her spine that she couldn't explain. Then a moment later, she blinked. And when she opened her eyes, she was no longer Karyn.
Sarah smiled with Karyn's lips as she stood in the foyer of the Black family household. It had worked, she had possessed the body of Karyn Black. And now she had half an hour to do with it whatever she wanted.
Sarah quickly discovered that knowledge did not come with possession of a body, but it wasn't too difficult to find Karyn's bedroom, and subsequently Karyn's closet.
Blech. Sarah had never seen so many baggy hoodies in one place before. There was a large, empty cardboard box in one corner of the room. Sarah didn't spend too much energy trying to figure out whether or not it was important, she simply grabbed it, wrote "DONATIONS" one one side with a marker she'd found on Karyn's nightstand, and dumped every single hoodie into the box.
With a lot more room available in the closet, it was easy for Sarah to sort through the rest of the clothes. She wasn't going to leave Karyn with nothing, but her eyes scanned the remaining outfits for inspiration. All Sarah wanted was to see what Karyn would look like if she actually put effort into her own appearance.
A simple linen A-line skirt caught Sarah's eye. Almost the same shade of mint green as Sarah's magical scarf, but more solid-looking. Knee-length. Not too showy-offy, but not conservative, either. And genuinely a quality piece of clothing.
Sarah leapt at it and laid it out on Karyn's bed, before returning for more. There was a white camisole on a hanger that looked like it was intended to be an undershirt. Lace detailing along the collar was clearly designed to peek out from underneath a V-neck, but Sarah's plans didn't include a V-neck. The camisole made its way next to the skirt.
Digging through drawers, Sarah found a white braided leather belt. It was a little bit worn, but it would do. The only decent pair of shoes in the pile on Karyn's floor, fortunately, matched the belt: a white leather kitten-heel sandal. Sarah was mentally keeping time, but barely five minutes had elapsed between entering Karyn's body and changing fully into this new outfit. Sarah was being very efficient.
But she wasn't done, not by a long-shot.
Returning to the hallway, Sarah found what must have been Karyn's bathroom, but a quick scan revealed that aside from some skin lotion, she barely had any sort of cosmetics. Tragic. She kept on looking, until she found the master bedroom, and more importantly, the attached bathroom.
Here was more promise. Karyn's mom was clearly not the girliest woman in the world, but scanning the contents of the countertop revealed adequate results, to Sarah's mind. She brushed Karyn's hair away from her face, then dug into the makeup before her. No primer, so she went straight for the liquid foundation. A bold lip, some light color on the cheeks and a subtle eyeshadow above mascara that was clumping more than Sarah's favorite brands ever did. But it did the job.
Sarah grabbed some bobby pins and gave Karyn a quick up-do. She still had ten minutes left as she turned to the full-length mirror on the bathroom door and let herself admire her handiwork.
"Oh, I love this look on you, Karyn," she said to the mirror as she took in the whole outfit. Sarah was good at making girls look pretty, and even with the sparse materials she had at her disposal, the girl in the mint green skirt before her was exactly what Sarah knew Karyn could look like, if only she'd put in more effort.
Sarah let herself turn and pose in the mirror for another few minutes, admiring her handiwork. She was proud of herself for making Karyn, of all people, look good. Then a thought clicked in her mind.
"The actions you take while in their body will inform how they continue to act once you leave." That's what the note had said. Do actions include words? It was worth finding out.
"I can't believe I never tried to dress myself up this way before," Sarah said into the mirror, trying to put on her sincerest tone of surprised. "I look really good. I should do this more often. I want to always look this way. It's so worth it to put effort into my appearance, if these are the results. I need to wear more skirts. Oh! And fewer hoodies!" Sarah let a grin slide onto Karyn's face. "Why would I ever wear a hoodie again when I look so hot dressed like this? I am Karyn Black, and I love being cute!"
A quick glance at the clock hanging next to the towel rack told Sarah she now had ten minutes left. There was one more thing she wanted to do, and she wasn't sure she'd have enough time.
Back to Karyn's room, she used Karyn's own fingerprint to unlock her laptop and opened up browser tabs for Sephora and Forever 21 and Victoria's Secret.
"Wait, something's not quite right," she said out loud. Then it clicked, as she unlocked Karyn's phone and opened Spotify, before loading up a playlist full of Sarah's favorite songs.
"That's better."
Taylor Swift was singing "22" as Sarah quickly placed strategic items into three online shopping carts. Ten minutes was not a lot of time, and certainly not long enough to place all three orders. But when Karyn's body blinked and opened its eyes with Karyn in control once more, her mouth still held the lingering traces of Taylor Swift lyrics, and her brain was not questioning why the mouse cursor in front of her was hovering over the words "continue to check-out."
