“The calm before the storm” Jen muttered to herself as she flicked on the lights to the daycare getting ready for another no doubt exhausting day. She liked her job, but her current flock of children were something else. They just didn’t seem to want to calm down, they were always up to eleven. Jen put her bag down at her desk and prepared herself for the duties that needed doing at the start of every day. Making sure the room was nice and warm, cleaning the toys and making sure they were tidy and preparing the day’s activities.

It was easy to feel a little underappreciated when within seconds of playtime, her work would be ruined, but that was the job. Jen had made good money babysitting as a teenager; this was that turned up to the max. Once satisfied with the temperature of the room, she went over to the toybox and knelt over it. The toys atop it were the most popular ones, always taken, so there was never a big reason to have them put inside. With her cloth, Jen made sure they were free from any dirt and nastiness that they may have picked up, there were more than a few in her class that liked to put them in their mouths.

The ‘pride of place’ toys cleaned, Jen moved onto the toys in the box, one by one wiping them down, making sure they were right for the day ahead. This could get quite tedious, but when the kids came in it would be chaos, so she made the most of the quiet. As she finished with the last toy in the box, so noticed something sticking out from behind the toybox, it looked like an arm. Jen hadn’t looked behind the toybox before, she never thought to. She pulled the box away from the wall and found a few toys which were damaged. A plush monkey with its head hanging off, a toy car with no wheels and the owner of the arm, a barbie doll.

It was a shame when toys were broken, but it was as if their purpose was fulfilled. She sighed and stood up to grab the trash can. The monkey and car went inside, but as she picked up the barbie, she considered it for a moment. The arm seemed fine, it could probably be repaired. It would be a shame to waste it, Jen thought.

Jen decided to fix the doll, it was weird, it reminded her of the dolls she had as a little girl. She sat down at her desk and inspected the arm, it seemed a simple fix, it should just pop back in. Making sure the joint on the doll was not cracked, Jen carefully put the arm back onto the doll. There, good as new, well almost. She was a little worse for wear, but she’d probably been here a while.

Jen held the doll in her hand, smiling at it. Her long blond hair, the goofy grin on her face, the outfit that was probably stylish when she was new. It really took her back to her childhood. Still, she couldn’t sit here all day, being nostalgic, the kids would soon arrive. Walking back over to the toybox, she gave the doll one last look.

“Oh, the stories you could tell” Jen sighed. As she went to put the doll in the box, she noticed the eyes of the doll begin to glow, which got brighter and brighter. In shock she dropped the doll “Fuck!”

The light seemed to get more intense before Jen felt herself lose consciousness.

***

“Ugh, how long was I out?” Jen thought as she woke up on the floor. She felt cold and stiff and really weird.

She was smiling, she could feel it, why was she smiling. The more the thought to stop the more obvious it was that she couldn’t stop. Her face was frozen in place. Her everything was frozen in place; she couldn’t move a muscle! Oh no, had she fallen and paralysed herself? One of the kids will find me, they’ll get help, she assured herself, trying to keep calm. But the curious feeling was still there, she could feel. She felt the floor beneath her, but she just couldn’t move.

“Oh, this is new!” a voice from behind her cried out. The bone chilling thing was it was her voice, Jen would know it anywhere. How had she spoken without meaning to? There was movement in the periphery of her vision, but she couldn’t move at all to see what it was. Jen was really freaking out now, something very wrong had happened.

If she could have, she’d have screamed in absolute fear when she felt herself being gripped by the waist. Whatever was doing it was incredible strong, it lifted her up from the ground with consummate ease. She could now see her long blond hair dangle down past her face, only she had brown hair. Where had the blonde come from? A dark and disturbing thought was starting to emerge, and it got confirmed as Jen felt herself be turned around. She was now face to face with… herself.

The other Jen was huge… or else, Jen was just tiny? Jen could only stare blankly as the copy of her beamed at her. She could see a remnant of her breakfast lodged in her teeth. And yet, she kept on smiling, why couldn’t she stop smiling.

“It’s so good being big!” Jen’s body giggled “And being able to move and everything”

Jen watched her body squeal with joy, and pump her fists, shaking Jen around so fast, she felt sick.

“You’re probably wondering what’s happened. I often found myself out of the loop too. We’ve swapped places. So now I’m you, and you’re me” The body explained, Jen was so confused. As if sensing it, Jen was carried over to the corner of the room with the sink, a mirror hung above it. Facing the mirror, Jen saw herself, only she wasn’t occupying her own body. Jen was occupying what was in her body’s hand. Jen was the barbie doll.

True panic set in as everything she was feeling made sense, she could feel the doll’s stupid grin plastered on herself. But she didn’t understand, the doll’s eyes were painted on, how could she see? The doll’s head was hollow plastic, how could she think? These questions went unanswered as her body, or the doll as it seemed to be the case, carried her back over to the desk. It’s funny, Jen always used to think her desk was too small, now it seemed gargantuan.

Everything was so confusing, was the doll always alive? How could she speak English if she’d always been a doll? Jen’s plastic body moved against her will as her old human body bent her into a sitting down position and rested her on the desk in front of her. She could only watch as her old body stretched out.

“Man, I’ve been stuck behind that toybox for ages” she sighed “You know the person before you was a lot better at keeping track of us toys when kids used to stuff us behind there. Still, you fixed me instead of throwing me away, so I guess I have to be thankful for that.”

This was a nightmare, her body had been stolen and she was trapped as a fucking doll. Every moment brought about a new horrifying revelation. She was aware of her fingers being fused together, the separate sections of her torso, the rigidness of her breasts, the nothingness of her crotch. Jen had been reduced to a child’s plaything and she could not stop smiling.

“It’s weird, I think I have your memories. I can remember things like fixing your arm” The doll mused

‘No I fixed your arm!’ Jen angrily thought at the imposter. Still the smile lingered.

“You’re probably wondering how we swapped. Honestly, I don’t know. It may have been something to do with what you said just before we switched. My first owner was a very special girl, I wonder if she had something to do with it. I started to be able to think because of her. It was a sad day when her Mommy gave me away to this place. These kids can play really rough”

Jen was barely listening to the doll’s blathering, she noticed her body playing with her bangs, something she did when she was idly thinking. She had her memories too? Oh my god, no one is going to notice the doll isn’t her! How would they swap back? Jen desperately hoped this was a temporary affair.

“Oh well, it’s just about time the kids arrived, I’d better put you away with the other toys” The doll smiled and picked Jen back up, straightening her out.

‘I am not a toy!’ Jen thought futilely as she was carried over to the toybox. The impostor lifted the lid and Jen was dropped inside, landing face to face with an ugly clown doll she’d never liked. The lid shut and Jen was left in darkness, unable to do anything other than lay there, smiling like a bimbo.

From inside her prison, Jen could hear the children excitedly enter the daycare. It suddenly occurred to her that before long the children would excitedly open up the toybox and grab whatever took their fancy. She was going to be played with! She knew how rough the kids could get, hell the condition she found the damned barbie in was proof of that. Jen cursed herself for ever picking that damned thing up, she should have tossed it with the other broken toys, she’d still be herself then.

Jen heard her own voice speak to the children, though it was quite muffled, a stuffed bear was right next to her ear, though again the logistics of hearing out of what was essentially moulded plastic was baffling. Jen grew frustrated as her former body spoke to the children; she really was stealing her life. She supposed if the doll had access to her memories, then it wouldn’t be hard to impersonate her. Did that mean she had the doll’s memories too? Did the doll even have memories? She thought hard but couldn’t recall anything that wasn’t her own past. It made Jen suspicious, the doll claimed she didn’t know how they swapped, but it was her eyes that glowed. But what reason would she have to conceal the truth, she had all the power now, Jen was just a plastic toy.

The waiting was agonising inside the dark toybox. It was so frustrating not being able to move an inch, just lying there in the darkness. Jen was usually pragmatic, if something was wrong, she’d take immediate steps to correct it. This was the biggest disaster she’d ever faced in her life and she wasn’t able to lift a finger to do anything about it.

The outside world was muffled and hard to get any clarity on what was going on, but one thing did come through, the word she’d been dreading. “Playtime.” Jen felt the box shake as a horde of excited children stampeded towards the toy box. She got a shock when light returned to her world and she once again saw she was face to face with that dumb clown toy. One by one, the children grabbed the toys they wished to play with. The bear next to her was taken away, Jen was knocked on her side by a boy grabbing a toy car and out of the corner of her eye she saw someone take that ugly clown.

For a moment, Jen had a flutter of hope that maybe she wouldn’t get picked. Though she also felt a pang of sadness, why was she such an unwanted toy? It didn’t last long before she was plucked into the air by a giant, pudgy hand. Jen helplessly was lifted up out of the box and was face to face with the child that picked her. It was Luna, a little girl Jen had always considered quite sweet. She looked anything but now from Jen’s perspective, as Luna grinned widely, her missing two front teeth quite distinctive. This was a nightmare, Luna was a little girl, now she was a giant. Though, Jen knew the truth, it didn’t make it any easier to take, her whole world was warped now.

Luna ran around the classroom with her dolly, making her walk along the tables as she hummed melodically to herself. For Jen, it was like the most dangerous roller coaster she’d ever been on, held up only by this little girl’s hand, she was moving around the room at breakneck speed, the girl banging her legs on the table as she went. On one particular ‘step’ Luna gave her, the little plastic shoe on her foot popped off. Jen’s usual experience of taking off her heels after a long day was letting her feet relax, in this form, they stayed in place, giving no relief at all.

Luna failed to notice the shoe had come off and continued to play with her dolly. Luna remembered this dolly, she married her to a boy dolly once, but couldn’t find her again after that. She was thrilled to be reunited and rushed back to the toybox to see if the boy dolly could be found. After a bit of digging, she found him, his shirt had gone missing, but Luna didn’t mind, she grabbed the boy dolly with her other hand and decided to play out a scene between the newlyweds.

Jen found herself facing another doll, a male soldier doll, that seemed to be played with more by the girls of the daycare than the boys. Jen was just glad Luna had stopped running about and had decided to sit at a table to play out the scene in her head.

“Honey, I’m back from work” Luna said, in a deep voice, that would be adorable if it wasn’t for the existential terror Jen was in.

“There’s my handsome husband” Luna said, mimicking a higher voice, as Luna spoke for her, Jen was hopped up and down in the girl’s hand.

Luna continued to play out a scene, which Jen felt betrayed the girl’s upbringing, as it seemed to closely resemble a tv sitcom, though filtered through the mind of a five year old girl. It all ended with a big kiss, as Luna forced Jen and the male doll close together. Jen was powerless as her face was pushed close into the static face of the other doll as Luna made kissing noises behind them. She felt a little jealous of the boy doll, his expression was stoic and serious, she was stuck smiling like an airhead. Though when she thought about it, an airhead was exactly what Jen was at that moment.

Luna seemingly lost interest in her roleplay and left the dolls on the table as she wandered off to the toybox to see what was left she could play with. Laying motionless on the table, Jen was relieved as she lay there, staring at the similarly abandoned soldier doll. It could have been far worse, she considered, at least the worst that happened was Luna’s hyperactive running around. As she thought that however, she felt a tug on her hair.

Jen slid off the table and was dangling in mid-air, by her long blond hair. Who carried a doll like this? Jen thought annoyed as she was swung around by her hair painfully. It was a good thing she was so light, otherwise it may have been pulled out. As she was swung, she caught a glimpse of her tormentor, it was Dylan, a rather tough and tumble boy, who more than once she’d had to tell off for misbehaving. Now here he was swinging a doll around by its hair, Jen wondered if it was symbolic of his feelings towards women, but any attempt at psychoanalysing the boy were halted when she was thrown up into the air.

Jen felt like she was flying as she ascended. The world moved so fast past her, it was hard to focus on any one thing. She came to a rest at the apex of her arc, for a second feeling balanced, before gravity kicked in and she started to plummet back down to earth. Every instinct Jen had screamed at her to brace herself, to protect herself from the fall, but her body refused to move. Just as the ground came close and Jen thought it was the end, she felt a hand grip her leg. Dylan had caught her. The relief didn’t last long, as she was flung into the air once again.

The same feelings came to her as she rose, and the same fears as she fell. This time, Dylan caught her by her waist. She was feeling so dizzy, if she had a stomach, Jen would’ve puked by now. Why her, what had she done to deserve this, to be treated to poorly? Dylan threw her into the air again, only this time, he let go at the wrong time and instead of being propelled straight up, Jen was thrown forward. She flew across the room, unable to do anything to slow down, or change her path, which was due to collide straight into the back of a plastic chair. She got closer and closer before she smacked face first into it, bouncing down onto the seat of the chair.

“No more, please no more” Jen begged silently, an impact like that should have killed her, though how exactly do you kill a plastic doll? Thankfully, it seemed Dylan had finished with her and had moved on to torture some other poor toy. Jen lay on the seat for a good while before another kid picked her up. Annie was a curious little girl, quite quiet, kept to herself. Seeing all her children from this new perspective made her never want to work with children again. Jen decided that if she ever got her body back, she’d quit.

Jen thought Annie was just going to play with her gently, when the girl sat her down and just smiled at her a little. Annie pulled off the remaining shoe from Jen’s foot and flicked it away. Memories of picking up after the kids, finding toy accessories all over the place came back. Jen always found it tedious, but she’d give anything to have that in her future again. It was when Annie turned Jen around, that she started to get worried as she heard the distinctive ripping of Velcro from behind. What was she doing?

It didn’t take long to find out, as Jen felt the top she had on being pulled from her, leaving her torso bare. Annie then removed the skirt from the doll. Jen didn’t think it was possible to be any further humiliated, first she was switched with a doll, then kids played with her, now she was naked. Annie turned Jen back around and giggled at the naked doll before her.

“Annie, that’s my dolly” came Luna’s voice from behind

“I’m playing with her” Annie rebuffed

“You’re doing it wrong, give her here” Luna demanded, grabbing Jen’s arm

“No!” Annie whined as she pulled the doll away from Luna.

Jen felt as if she was being pulled apart by the two giant girls fighting over her. To think she’d lamented before about being an unwanted toy, Jen wanted nothing more than to be back in the toybox, at least it was safe there. The pressure grew and something had to give. Sure enough with a popping sound, Jen’s arm was pulled from her torso and Luna fall backwards and began to cry. Almost in response, Annie begun weeping too.

Jen was really freaking out now, her arm was gone! But she could still feel it being grasped by Luna, but it wasn’t attached to her body anymore. This was more than she could take, she was a naked, broken, plastic doll and yet she still couldn’t stop smiling.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” Jen’s old voice asked as she approached the crying children, who both started to blame each other for the accident. Frustratingly, Jen watched as her body dealt with the situation well, she wanted to see the doll impostor mess it all up. As she calmed the children down and led them away, Jen lay on the floor. Was this is it, what her life was now? Before long, her old body returned and picked Jen up.

“You’ve been through the wars” she sighed, carrying Jen over to her desk. Laying there on the desk were the doll clothes, including both shoes and her arm. “I figured I’d repay the favour”

Jen sat there motionless as the doll reattached her missing arm. Before redressing her though, the doll called Luna and Annie over to her desk.

“Now girls, you’ve got to play nicely with dolls, and treat them with care” The doll chastised the girls, Jen felt as if this was some of the doll’s own feelings talking.

“But it’s just a cheap doll” Luna pouted, Jen was pleased she was facing the impostor, she could see the annoyance in her face from being called cheap.

“That will be all” The impostor grumbled and the two girls left them alone. Picking up the clothing, the doll begun redressing Jen, but all the while grousing away “Never got any respect. My first owner, she knew how to treat a doll, but the kids here just do what they want.”

For once the smile plastered on Jen’s face felt accurate, good, the body thief should feel bad about all this.

“But now they have to listen” The body thief mused, a wry smile creeping over her face “Because I’m their teacher now.”

Jen didn’t like the sound of that, as the plastic shoes were put back onto her feet, back to the condition she started in.

“I think I’ll keep you up here for now, make sure you don’t get yourself all messed up again” The doll mused, posing Jen in a welcoming manner, her arm bent against her hip and other, now reattached arm, posed as if waving. The impostor propped Jen up against a coffee cup and left her. Great, now she was some sort of glorified mascot.

Jen’s new position gave her a view of the entire classroom and was forced to watch as the impostor continued to pose as her, doing a pretty good job. She knew what activities were planned and how to handle the children. All Jen had was the increasingly slim hope that they’d swap back. She thought back to how it happened. The doll was in her hand and its eyes began to glow. Now she was the doll, could she do that? It was the only hope she had left.

When the children left, Jen couldn’t help take an internal sigh of relief, she was glad to see the back of the little monsters. She watched as her body began to clean up, picking up the toys discarded around the room and putting them away carefully.

“I have a confession” her body spoke, as it started turning the chairs over onto the little tables “I do know why we swapped. As I said, my first owner was a very special little girl, she imbued me with life and a little bit of magic. Not quite full sentience, but enough for some awareness. I’ve longed to try out being a real person, but it always seemed impossible. Then you looked at me this morning, so wistfully. Your want to know ‘the stories I could tell’ was enough, I took my chance and swapped our places.”

‘So it was the doll that did it!’ Jen thought as the impostor continued

“I only wanted to try it out, I know it must be bad for you trapped in that body. I can swap us back”

Jen’s heart lifted, she was saved. She promised herself, that she’d keep the doll well away from the children, even take it home as a thank you for saving her, even if she was the one who put her in the situation to begin with.

“But I won’t” The impostor’s face was devoid of emotion as she condemned Jen “I didn’t think being human would be this good, I just can’t give it up. I’m sorry Jen, but I’m keeping things this way. That mean’s you’re going to be a doll forever.”

Jen wanted to thrash around, to angrily display the horror and rage she was feeling, but kept standing in this ridiculous pose she was left in. The smile on her face, unchanging as she discovered it would be the face she’d have forever. The impostor strode over and picked Jen up. She tried desperately to make her eyes glow to swap back, if the doll could do it, so could she

“I’ll make sure you’re treated well, make sure the kids aren’t too rough, stop them from stuffing you behind the toybox. I’ll try and convey what a special dolly you are, maybe get you treated with more respect than I ever was. I’ll start by placing you here, pride of place.”

Jen’s body placed her on top of the toy box, where Jen liked to display the most popular toys. She was still posing as if waving towards the door.