New You Inc grew out of a need that nobody really knew they had, but that everyone soon discovered; the need to be a new them, to see what it would be like if they were different. If they were black instead of white, young instead of old, male instead of female, famous instead of a nobody. Until they came along, people had been struggling along in their lives, living the same old dreary existences day in, day out, martyrs to their own existence, suffering in silence or as loud as possible. Some wore their grievances, their pain, their weariness like a mask, letting it take over who they were, letting it infect their entire beings, letting it permeate their souls. Others lashed out in anger, inflicting their pain on others because they couldn’t bear to accept it themselves. Others still swallowed it all, slapped a smile on their faces, and trudged through their lives in blissful denial, ignoring the fact that they were the ones who hurt themselves the most. People the whole world over were in agony just being themselves, and New You Inc changed all that.

Nobody really knew where the company came from, or how their procedure worked. One day, there was no word of them, the next, everyone knew them. The franchise grew much like most other intercontinental franchises; slowly at first, then rapidly, with an explosion of facilities throughout the whole world. Within six months of their inception, there was a New You Inc building in every major city. Within a year, there was one in every other town. They filled a niche nobody had even known existed; they filled a hole in the market, in the lives, that nobody had known was there.

It was a pretty fantastic idea they had, really- they claimed to have technology, developed in secret, that could allow a person to switch their soul, their personality, their mind, with that of another ‘self’ in an alternate reality. It was, in a word, insane. Scientists all over the world immediately rushed to debunk them, to proclaim it impossible, to announce that alternate realities were the work of fiction, of deluded minds; and yet, oddly, every one that did suddenly became much more compliant once they’d visited the facilities. There were those who said they must have been switched, that they must have been taken over by alternate selves, while others said that was nonsense, and that the scientists had merely changed their minds, as was perfectly reasonable. Me, I just let all the news pass me by; after all, it didn’t affect me, right? A bunch of people I didn’t know complaining about something I’d never use.

The popularity of the company was overwhelming, though- people would use the service, and come back with all kinds of testimonials, with all kinds of knowledge about new worlds and civilisations. There’d be stories about worlds almost identical to our own, except everyone was left-handed, or redheads, or spoke in what we’d think of as a Swedish accent. There were stories of people ending up as different species, as different ethnicities, genders, and ages. There were stories of technologies being developed, books being written, laws being passed, all based off ideas people had brought back with them from their travels.

We’d been locked into one life for far too long, and the effects of this change were liberating. Instead of suffering through their lives, people could become someone else for a while, and then come back feeling better, making changes. Instead of travelling to different places in the world, people travelled to different selves. Travel agents, instead of offering package holidays to resorts, to hotels, to tropical locales, began offering family deals to other dimensions. Soon, couples, families, entire clans of people were switching in one go, taking time out in new lives and new bodies to rekindle old relationships, to tighten old bonds, to forge new relationships. It wasn’t unheard of for more prominent politicians and businessmen to switch into another world to discuss business, in relaxed places, far away from prying eyes and eavesdropping.

The world changed as people did, becoming better, brighter, happier. Even in the war-torn parts of the planet, people began to become more positive. In starving areas, things began to get better as humanitarians from other worlds leapt into our world and grasped the problem. Peace began to settle, hunger and war and famine and disease began to die down. We were heading for a utopian dream, and all thanks to the wonder of technology. To the wonder of New You.

The best thing they had going for them was the availability of their services- their prices were fair, and varied from place to place- from case to case, even. Anyone at all could use them, and that made their popularity skyrocket. Soon, pretty much everyone had used them at least once, or knew someone who’d used them at least once, and eventually, those that hadn’t used the company gave into peer pressure, and found themselves converted. So, naturally, I decided to try it out for myself.

My name is- or was Freddie Flint. Yeah, really. Oh, sure, it sounds like the sort of name that would have been perfect for an actor- the sort of name that should be splashed across a movie poster or emblazoned in lights on the front of a theatre, or written in extra big letters in the title sequence of a TV drama. And maybe it should have been, but it sure as hell wasn’t. I was a struggling actor, stuck in a city of struggling actors, where anyone who wanted to make it in the business needed to have a certain pizzazz, a certain je ne sais quoi, a certain joi de vivre or something. Me? I had a knack for accents, for body language, for imitating people perfectly; but, according to my agent and countless casting directors, it was more creepy than impressive. I’d start talking to someone, and before long, I’d be imitating them perfectly, from the way they stood to the accent they spoke; from the dialect they used, to the inflections their words had. So instead of getting gigs, I lost them.

I wasn’t really anything special to look at, either- when I was young, I’d been this chubby little cherub, this rosy-cheeked youth who looked like he’d stepped out of some Christmas card. But by the time I was all grown up, I was the complete opposite. A lifetime of growth, and minor malnutrition, and keep-fit regimes had left me tall, and lanky, and gaunt. At 6’4, I was head and shoulders above my competition (literally), but I was skinny enough to almost threaten my health. It didn’t help that my skin was so pale it almost glowed, or that my eyes were a little sunken and the kind of grey you found on seagulls, or that my hair was so black it shone blue in the right light. Every role I went for required someone to look decent, presentable, vaguely human; not the rough spectre of doom I looked like. With every passing month, every day I scraped together a meal a day, I grew skinnier and skinnier, paler and paler, until eventually, I knew I had to do something, before I faced the very real danger of killing myself.

So I took myself down to the nearest New You, flipped through their files, and found a guy I wanted to be; Jude Longmore. Where I was tall and lanky, he was the right kind of tall; lean, taut. Where my hair was dark and scruffy, his was the colour of toffee and stylishly dishevelled. Where my eyes were pale and sunken, his were bright and shining, the colour of autumn leaves. Whereas I was poor, lonely, a nobody, he was rich, famous, in a long term relationship. He was everything I’d always dreamed I could be, had everything I’d ever wanted, and for some reason, he was willing to switch out of it. And not just leave it all behind, but to do it for at least six months. It was insane that anybody should want to leave a life like that, but he did, and he wanted to do it soon. Naturally, I applied to take over his life, and a couple of days later, I received the news that he’d agreed. An appointment was made, a dossier with his information was delivered, and then events unfolded like a rapidly-inflated bouncy castle.

The procedure was pretty painless, really- it was a case of being strapped to a bed, of given an anaesthetic, of having a weird contraption placed over my head. I was vaguely aware, as I passed out, of an odd sucking feeling coming from inside my head, and then I wasn’t aware of anything, not really.

I woke slowly, as through from a heavy sleep, yawning as I turned my head towards a light, feeling a soft, comfortable pillow below my cheek. Slowly, my eyes fluttered open, and I blinked, focussing on a chair in the corner of the room I was in- a room I didn’t recognise. It was obviously a hospital, because only a hospital had the kind of scent of antiseptic that was wafting through my nostrils, but it wasn’t one I recognised. I gradually became aware of a movement somewhere to the left of my head, and turned to face it, looking at a nurse as I did so. She smiled, muttered “good, you’re awake, then. I’ll go and get her for you- she’s been here for hours, worried sick”. A moment later she turned and left, leaving me to wonder just who she’d been talking about. Thankfully, though, I didn’t have to wait for long; within five minutes, the door to the room opened again, and there stood a woman, framed by the light. As I struggled to make her out, wondering just who in the hell she was, she smiled, and breathed just four words, full of relief and love and happiness. Just four words told me all I needed to know about where I was, who I was, about the success of the procedure. Just four single, simple, soft words. “Jude, you’re awake. Good”