A Picture Is Worth 3000 Words Ch 03

Authors forward: This was a blast to write and probably one of my longest yet. That said, it is a cross over and I would suggest having read "Dream Hopper" and "I am the ghost in your house". If you haven't you won't be completely lost but you will miss some things.

A picture is worth three thousand words

So, it's been a bit since I last wrote some stuff down. Let me fill you in on what's happened. Emily, Kyle, and I are all going to the local community college. It's on the edge of the city in the newer area and has a good reputation. Kyle is going for construction, Emily is going for journalism, and I'm going for accounting. So far it's boring AF but it'll pay well so that's a plus. Unfortunately because of our different courses we were assigned different dorms on campus. Still, it's not difficult for the three of us to hang out, then go back and hang out again...

Anyways, this whole story starts with us on the Friday before Halloween realizing that we were almost out of Polaroids. On the weekend (hallows eve) we met up and took the bus down to where we had found the shop previously. After we got off the bus we started walking to the address when Kyle struck up a conversation.

Kyle: "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the shop isn't even there."

Emily: "Yea as strange as it was to find it, knowing what they sold us I feel like there's just going to be an empty lot."

Me: "You guys watch to many movies! It'll just vanish as we get there!" I joked but I was worried. The dude sold us film that let us time travel, anything was possible.

As we approached the walkway we all sort of stopped and looked around the corner.

Kyle: "Wow, I can't believe it's actually still there. Maybe it's some spooky Halloween shit."

Me: "I can't believe it either! Come on!"

We all quickened our step and were soon at the front door. Outside they still had the same "Antiques!" sign. As we stepped inside it seemed to be in the exact same state as when we left it. It looked like nothing had been sold.

Me to Emily: "Is it just me or does it seem like this place is frozen in time?"

Emily: "It's not just you, give me a second."

Emily left my side and ran to the clothing section. About a minute later she returned with a vintage blue sweater.

Me: "That looks just like the one we got here last time..."

Emily: "That's because it is. There's a stain on the inside by the label and this one has it too."

Kyle approached us and relayed everything we already knew.

Me: "Lets just get some film and get out of here."

The others nodded in agreement and we went to the counter. The old man looked at me with recognition, he remembered me.

The man: "So, have you three been taking some good photos?"

Me unsure of how to respond: "Yes...?"

The man: "Came back for more film?"

Me very sure of my answer: "Yes!"

The man smiled and started looking under the counter. He started "You know many people like to buy online these days... I don't get many customers buying film from me anymore...I say local business can provide superior products... Wouldn't you agree?"

Me: "I don't think I'd ever buy film anywhere else." I said with a smile.

The man: "Most who try this film would agree..."

The man pulled up several 10 packs of film and I ended up buying 3 as it's all we could afford. We walked out of the store and back to the sidewalk on the main street.

Me: "Well we're here again, shall we take another selfie for good luck?"

Emily: "I think after what happened last time we better."

It was a busy time of day so there were lots of people walking behind us, many of them in costume heading for one party or another but I timed it well so the shop could still be seen. After that we walked back to the bus stop, went back to Kyle's dorm and watched a movie before heading out to the dorms Halloween party. I went as where's Waldo, Kyle borrowed from his program a hard hat and hi-vis vest to be a construction worker, and lastly Emily dressed up as a goth chick. Emily always had the natural features (dark hair, light skin) but was never comfortable wearing tight clothing until all of this started. The party it's self was a bit of a blur and we woke up the next day in Kyle's dorm again only this time, hung over.

I woke up on the chair first to find Emily on the couch on her phone drinking water.

Me: "Hey, where's..."

Emily: "Kyle? In his bed."

We were in Kyle's quad's common room. Technically there was suppose to be 3 other people for the other 3 bedrooms but they dropped out. "Here!" Emily said as she chucked a bottle of water at me. I opened it and started to nurse my mild hangover as best I could. After a bit Kyle was awake and we were having breakfast. That's when Emily got a text. She picked up her phone as she watched something and her eyes went wide.

Emily: "Holy shit guys you need to see this!"

She held her phone to our faces and we watched a video taken at a house party on the other side of the city. It looked like where was a fight about to happen between this big guy and someone dressed as a skeleton. The big guy punched the skeleton first and then grabbed his head. Then the skeleton landed a good punch but when the big guy went down, he took off the skeletons mask and there was nothing under it. I looked at Kyle in disbelief and then kept watching. The skeleton man started stripping the costume off but appeared to be completely invisible! Then the back door opened and closed it's self.

Kyle: "It's fake."

Me: "I'm not so sure about that, it looked really good."

Emily: "I don't think it is, the girl in my class that sent it to me also sent me another."

Emily showed us another video taken from someone else that missed most of the fight but caught the skeleton stripping and running out the door.

Kyle: "It's fake! Anyone can do that these days! Besides, there's no such thing as invisible people."

Me: "Yea just like there's no such thing as time travel or body possession."

Kyle: "Just because some crazy shit is real doesn't mean all crazy shit is real."

I looked over at Emily who was comparing the video to one of our Polaroids.

Emily: "Its her..."

Me: "What do you mean?"

Emily: "The red head in the video dressed as a slutty nurse is in the background of our Polaroid.

Me: "What!?"

Kyle and I leaned in closer and it was undeniable. One of the people in the background of our Polaroid was at that party.

Emily: "I knew taking another selfie was a good idea."

Me: "What do you mean."

Emily: "Well one of us can go back as her and watch what happens for real."

Me: "Maybe catch the guy?"

Kyle: "Or see how fake it is..."

Emily: "OK it's settled, I'll go back and report back to you guys."

Kyle: "No no no, I'll go back. I need to see this with my own eyes... well maybe someone else's but you know what I mean."

Me: "And I'm not letting you go cause I want to know you're not going to lie to me!"

Emily: "OK, so we're all going?"

Me to Emily: "I mean, you don't have to."

Emily: "Please, you two couldn't pull off being a girl for 2 minutes let alone a whole night. Soooo.... In conclusion we're all going. I will be in charge, you two are along for the ride. Got it?"

Kyle and I: "Yep."

Emily slid the Polaroid in front of us on the table and we all stared.

--------------------------------------------

I blinked the redhead girls eyes at the sight of a camera flash. Suddenly it felt like I was losing my balance and out of instinct tried to keep from falling.

Emily in our head: "STOP! Stop what you're doing Alex and Kyle!"

I remembered Emily was in charge here and stopped trying to balance, almost instantly things were corrected.

Kyle in our head: "Sorry about that, instinct took over."

Me in our head: "Yea same."

Emily in our head: "Well thankfully it wasn't too bad, it just looks like we tripped a bit. Lets look in this girls wallet and learn a bit about who she is."

Emily walked a bit further to get away from our past selves and then leaned against a brick wall and started going through the girls purse looking for a wallet.

Me in our head: "Wow this girl keeps some random stuff in her purse."

Emily in our head: "You can learn a lot about someone by what's in their purse. Here's some Kleenex, she either gets colds often, or is clumsy and like to clean up her spills. Here's the wallet!"

Emily pulled out the girls wallet and pulled out her drivers license. The girls name was Michelle Côte. She was about the same age as us and didn't live that far away from where we were.

Kyle in our head: "Michelle Côte, sounds French."

Me in our head: "Yea, but that's besides the point. We don't even know the address of the house. Check her phone."

Emily agreed and pulled out her phone. Thankfully she didn't use a password to lock it and one fingerprint reader was all it took. Eventually we figured out the address and started heading there. It was about a 20min walk so naturally conversation came up.

Emily in our head: "I could get use to having smaller boobs. Its much easier to walk around. Her bra doesn't even feel like it has an underwire."

Kyle: "I suspected the same thing!"

Kyle took control of Michelle's arms and grabbed her boobs.

Emily puled them away and said to us in our head: "You can't just do that in public! The talking out loud or feeling up!"

I felt Michelle's nipples harden after that and so did Emily as she zipped up her jacket. Then she reached under the coat and flicked a nipple. This sent a shiver down our body to our groin.

Emily in our head: "That was just for you boys." I felt our face smile after that.

Me in our head: "Based on the texts between Sarah and Michelle it sounds like they're fairly close. Do you think we'll get lucky with her?"

Emily in our head: "Not sure, but if so I'm getting lucky, you two are just along for the ride."

Kyle in our head: "Along for the ride?"

Emily in our head: "You two just need to keep it in our pants for one night OK? If Sarah comes on to us that's another thing."

Me in our head: "We don't have anything to take out of our pants!"

Emily smiled and replied in our head: "You know what I mean! Hey look! There's the house!"

Kyle in our head: "Hey look a change of subject!"

Emily made Michelle laugh out loud and replied to us internally. "Well it's still true!" Emily pulled up Sarah's contact in Michelle's phone to look at her picture. Sarah was a fairly good looking girl in her picture. It was mostly just her head with some out of focus flowers in the background. "Nice face, good smile." I said internally and Kyle agreed.

Emily in our head: "It beats this curly red mess Michelle has."

As we approached the house I noticed Sarah standing out front. She was wearing a sexy Doctor costume which consisted of a pair of scrub pants and a white coat buttoned up at the front leaving quite the amount of cleavage exposed. Sarah looked up from her phone and recognized us immediately.

Sarah: "Hey, you made it! After Dennis cancelled I was hoping I wouldn't end up here alone!"

Emily was quick with her responses: "Of course I couldn't leave you by yourself!"

Sarah: "Awesome. Lets go inside, I'm freezing my tits off. You were smart to wear a jacket. Did you wear the nurse's costume I got you?"

Emily unzipped the jacket to reveal the spandex tube top and skirt.

Sarah: "That looks so hot, you're definitely getting laid tonight." Then she gave us a wink.

Kyle in our head: "Dude! Did you see that! She totally wants us!"

Emily in our head: "She probably just means someone else will want us. That said... Lets see where the night leads us." As Sarah walked in the front door Emily watched her ass move side to side. When we got in the front door there was a spot for coats where Emily hung ours up. There was a stair case going up stairs, one going down, a living room to the right and a kitchen at the back.

Emily in our head: "OK, assuming the video was posted online right away, we have about an hour till the event. I say lets have a few drinks, talk to our friend as best we can, and keep an eye out for Mr Skeleton."

Kyle and I agreed and we followed Sarah into the kitchen. I noticed that the party hadn't been going on that long and there was already a fair amount of cans and cups laying around. Sarah pored some mixed drinks and handed one to us. It looked and smelled like a rum and coke. After a sip it was confirmed. Sarah lead us away into the living room where we sat down for a bit. It was a bit quieter over there and it seemed like Sarah wanted to make conversation.

Sarah leaned closer: "So, did you like that new dildo Jessica sent us?"

Emily, Kyle and I's head just about exploded. So many questions we asked each other after that. "Does that mean she's Michelle's girlfriend?" "Are we just really close friends?" "Who is Jessica?" "Why don't we have it any more?" Emily went with a diplomatic answer.

Emily: "How did you like it?"

Sarah: "Oh well I mean, it was awesome! I wish we could have kept it! It's too bad Jessica said we couldn't keep it. I mean we're all still new to having magical items and what not."

Our collective heads just exploded again.

Me in our head: "So there's other magical items out there! And apparently Sarah has some?"

Kyle: "Magic?"

Me in our head: "You idiot! You just said that out loud!"

Sarah looked at us confused.

Emily burst out laughing: "Ha ha ha, I'm just joking!"

Sarah smiled and chuckled.

After that Emily steered the conversation to costume critique and whether or not the other party goers put enough effort in. Sarah's mixed drinks while good, seemed to be stronger than expected. Soon 45 minuets had passed and neither of us had even seen Mr Skeleton. Emily sat down our drink on an already crowded table when seemingly out of nowhere Mr Skeleton appeared and cleared all the empties into a bag. Tipsy but now at full attention we watched him walk around the house picking up various cans and cups. Then he disappeared into the kitchen. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to see the fight from where we were sitting so we'd have to get up. This was beside the fact that we aren't where Michelle was in the original video.

Sarah: "I'm all done my drink, shall we get another one?"

Me in our head: "This is what lead Michelle to be in the video!"

Emily: "Yea sounds good."

As we got up we all could feel the effects of the alcohol making it difficult for Emily to balance. Lucky Sarah seemed to be equally tipsy and grabbed our arm to steady herself which helped Emily. We started towards the kitchen but were stopped by a crowd of people that was forming around the big guy and Mr Skeleton. Emily turned our head to see a girl behind us with her phone out. Emily gave a wink at the camera. I said to Emily in our head "You're so fucking cheeky sometimes." She smiled and we continued to watch. Mr Skeleton was doubled over and the big guy had his hood. Then Mr Skeleton gave the biggest punch a man that small I've ever seen give since Marty McFly's dad in Back to the Future II. Once the hood came off there really was nothing there.

Kyle: "Oh shit!"

I let that slip up go as it's in character. Mr Skeleton then proceeded to strip off the rest of the costume becoming completely invisible. Emily let Michelle's jaw open wide at the sight of this. Then he opened the back door and ran out disappearing into the night. I pulled myself out of a state of shock and internally yelled "Go after him!" Emily physically shook herself out of shock and pushed through the crowd. We made it to the door and went out to the back yard. We looked around but there was already no sign of him, we were too late.

Me: "Fuck, we were too late!"

Emily: "We probably should have talked to him before any of this."

Me: "Maybe but not screwing up time is still some what of a priority."

Kyle: "Oh like all those times we go back in time to switch bodies and fuck each other? That kinda not screwing up time?"

Me: "That's different, we take the pictures with the intent of going back. It's not like..."

There was a door slam behind us while I had been talking out loud. I hoped at the time I hadn't revealed too much with that last sentence. We turned around to see Sarah.

Sarah: "Hey did you see where he went?"

Emily: "No, that guy completely disappeared!"

Sarah: "Fucking crazy... That was insane! Listen, a bunch of people are talking about leaving. I think this party is dead. Why don't we walk home?"

Emily: "Sure, sounds good. We can get around the fence here."

Sarah: "And leave your favorite coat? Man, you really are drunk aren't you?"

Emily feigned a laugh: "Ha, I guess so..."

We made our way back through the house and grabbed our jacket on the way out the front door. We started walking letting Sarah take the lead chit chatting about school and her brother Dennis.

Sarah: "I just hope we all get out of this with some good jobs you know? It'd be a shame for us to spend so much and still be stuck making shit pay."

Emily: "I couldn't agree more."

Sarah: "I mean, hopefully my sociology degree can get me something..."

Emily: "I'm sure it will."

Emily did a good job of playing the supportive friend. We went down several small roads passing a small cut through before Sarah turned around.

Sarah: "Oh man we both missed the cut through!"

She laughed and we went back to it. After the cut through we came to an older area where Sarah led us to a house.

Kyle in our head: "That's the address on Michelle's drivers license! We live here!"

Me in our head: "Did you memorize her address?"

Kyle in our head: "What? Is it a crime to know where attractive women live?"

Emily and I laughed internally at Kyle's consistent nature.

Sarah opened the door and walked in leaving the door open for us. Emily closed the door behind us while Sarah threw her keys into a bowl. The layout in this house was remarkably similar to the house we were just in. Emily slowly walked in further as Sarah raced to the kitchen, grabbed two waters from the fridge, then came into the living room plopping herself on the chair facing us and tossed us a water at the same time. Emily caught it and jumped over the back of the couch facing Sarah.

Emily: "Thanks for the water."

Sarah: "Well I gotta keep my girlfriend hydrated. I wouldn't want either of us to have a hangover tomorrow."

Sarah who was still wearing the spandex top and skirt then shifted hiking up the shirt to her butt. Then she put one leg on the arm of the chair to the left and spread her other leg to the right giving us a view of her underwear. Emily seemingly couldn't resist and glanced a look. A fairly standard pair of Hot Pink cotton underwear.

Kyle in our head: "OK there's no way Michelle and Sarah don't fuck on the regular."

Sarah was casually complaining about a situation with her professor while she did this. To me this made it obvious that it was a common occurrence and Emily agreed. Emily then made the bold move and took off our bra from under our costume.

Sarah: "You know if I had boobs your size I'm not sure if I'd ever wear a bra."

Halfway through this she started to try to remove hers as well before getting frustrated and saying "Ah! Why don't we just go to bed now. I'm going to have to take my whole shirt off to get this thing off. Come on." She grabbed what was left of our water, put it back in the kitchen and headed for the stairs. Emily followed up to find one bathroom to the right, two bedrooms to the left, and one more bedroom at the end of the hall to the right. Sarah walked into the first bedroom on the left and turned around to say "Just put the costume on the hanger for now." As she spoke she was taking off her top and puling down her shirt. Emily entered to see a queen bed on the right, a desk on the left, and a closet further along that wall.