Bone-Fated Swap

1
My best friend, Abby, mailed me a rib shed had removed during weight-loss surgery. She wanted me to make a bone broth with it, and she insisted I record a video of myself drinking it.
The thought of it turned my stomach. I posted anonymously online, asking for advice.
An anonymous account replied.
Don't drink it. It's a bone-swapping curse. She's trying to trade lives with you!
An idea sparked. I went to the butcher, bought some beef ribs, and simmered them into a rich soup. I filmed myself drinking it for Abby.
Then I took the rib she sent me and tossed it into the feeding trough at a pig farm.
The next day, I went back to check. The sow, nursing five piglets, stared at me with eyes full of venomous resentment.
...
Clara, this is the rib I had them take out for you during my surgery. You have to make a soup with it, and don't forget to send me a video, okay?~
The message from my best friend, Abby, ended with a smiling emoji.
A moment later, a package from a local courier arrived.
I opened it. Inside were two ribs, cut clean by some sharp instrument. One was still stained with blood.
A wave of nausea hit me, and I shoved the box away.
Two weeks ago, Abby had complained about her weight and announced she was getting full-body liposuction. I gently advised her to think it over, warning her about the risks. I never imagined she'd not only go through with it but also have two of her ribs removed.
I took a moment to compose myself, then texted her back.
Are you insane? You want me to make soup with your rib?!
If you want to drink it, drink it yourself! I'm not doing it!
The moment I hit send, my phone rang. The sound was shrill and insistent, like an alarm in the dead of night. Abby's smiling face flashed on the screen, and for a long moment, I couldn't bring myself to answer.
On the sixth call, my boyfriend, Leo, suddenly appeared behind me. "Clara, what are you doing? Why aren't you answering your phone?" he murmured.
I froze, about to stop him, but it was too late. Hed already pressed the answer key.
I snatched the phone and retreated to the balcony. Before I could say a word, Abby's cloyingly sweet voice drifted from the receiver.
"Clara, didn't we just talk about this a couple of days ago? We promised to be best friends forever!"
"This is a special ritual just for us. If you drink the soup, our wish will come true!"
The hairs on my arms stood on end.
I hadn't seen Abby in two months. We'd been so busy with work we hadn't even spoken in a week. What "couple of days ago"? The last time we'd talked was when she congratulated me on my "dumb luck" for landing a rich boyfriend like Leo.
The more I thought about it, the more wrong it felt.
I used an anonymous account to post on a forum.
My best friend wants me to make soup with her rib and send her a video. Is this normal?
Replies flooded in almost immediately.
OP, can you actually stomach that? Because I definitely couldn't.
I've heard of psycho boyfriends, but a psycho best friend is a new one. Is this just for clicks?
Yeah, I love a good twisted story, but if this happened in real life, I'd be shaking.
Amid the jokes and shock, one anonymous account stood out. It had posted three comments in a row.
Don't listen to her! It's a bone-swapping curse. Your friend is trying to trade lives with you!
If you do what she says, your fate and your body will be exchanged with hers!
Get rid of the ribs immediately. But you can't just throw them away, or the curse will backfire on you. Find a living creature to take it for you!
I stared at the comments, a cold sweat breaking out on my skin.
Abby and I had been friends since we were kids. We went to the same university. Wed always promised that whoever got married first, the other would be the maid of honor. Our kids would be best friends, too.
How could she possibly want to harm me?
But the voice on the phone... it was definitely Abby.
As I stared at my phone, lost in thought, Leo walked out of the kitchen holding a bowl of soup.
"You said you were hungry, right?" he said softly, setting the bowl in front of me. "I saw the ribs you bought and made a broth. Eat it while it's hot."
He scooped up a spoonful of the glistening broth and brought it toward my lips. My eyes fell on the two familiar-looking ribs in the bowl. I flinched, instinctively shoving his hand away. The hot liquid splashed across the floor.
Leo's expression soured. "Clara, what's wrong with you? You almost burned me."
Seeing the anger in his eyes, I quickly made an excuse. "You know I can't drink meat broth without white pepper."
"And we're all out. Could you run down to the convenience store and grab some?"
For some reason, I had a nagging feeling that something was off about Leo. He was the kind of guy who wouldn't even make instant noodles for himself, always ordering delivery. For him to be making soup this late at night was completely out of character.
Was he in on this with Abby?
My excuse seemed to work. His face softened, and he pulled out his phone to order a delivery.
I quickly put on a disappointed look, wrapping my arms around his. "The store is right downstairs," I pouted. "You'll be back in ten minutes. If we order delivery, it'll take at least half an hour. The soup will be cold by then."
He sighed, unable to refuse. As soon as he was out the door, I poured the hot rib soup into a thermos and hid it. Then, I took out the leftover beef ribs from last night's dinner, carefully selected two small ones, and simmered them in a fresh pot of water. I poured the new broth into the bowl Leo had used. The beef ribs glistened with fat, looking almost identical to the ones Abby had sent.
Leo was back in less than ten minutes. He was out of breath, as if he'd been rushing.
I pretended not to notice, took the pepper with a smile, and sprinkled it into my soup.
While I drank, I recorded a video for Abby. "Abby, Leo made the soup for me. I'm drinking it now!" I had Leo hold the phone as I tilted my head back and finished the entire bowl. Then I made sure to praise his cooking skills.
Maybe it was my imagination, but Leo seemed to let out a small sigh of relief when I was done.
A minute after I sent the video, Abby replied with a cute emoji.
She hadn't suspected a thing. Leo left soon after, and I finally let myself relax. I retrieved the thermos and fished out the two bones. They had been steeping in the broth for hours, and their color had changed. One of them had taken on a grayish-blue tint, as if it had been cut from a long-dead skeleton.
Suddenly, a wild idea took hold of me.
The next morning, I took the thermos of soup and bones to a pig farm on the outskirts of the city. The owner was a distant relative, a place I used to visit as a child.
In one of the pens, a massive sow was lazing in the sun, a litter of pink piglets nursing at her belly.
My uncle, Ben, saw me staring. "Don't you recognize her?" he chuckled. "That's the little piglet you used to feed all the time. She's a mother now."
He scratched his head. "She's been acting a bit strange lately, though. Always keeps her head down, gives you this weird side-eye. It's creepy."
It took me a second to process what he'd said. I quickly urged him, "Uncle Ben, you go on with your work. I'll feed her for you today."
He nodded and handed me a bucket of feed.
As soon as he was gone, I pulled the thermos from my bag and started to pour the soup into the stone feeding trough.
The sow, who had been dozing, suddenly snapped her beady black eyes open and stared right at me. A shiver ran down my spine. My hand trembled, and the soup and bones tumbled into the trough together.
The sow went berserk. She scrambled to her feet and lunged at the trough, slurping down the soup with frantic, grunting noises. She even crunched the two bones to splinters and swallowed them, like a starving demon.
The sound of the cracking bones made my skin crawl. I was about to leave when the sow let out a strange, low whimper from behind me.
It didn't sound like a pig. It sounded like a human sigh.
Goosebumps erupted all over my body. I whipped my head around.
The sow, which had been on all fours, was now standing on her hind legs, her front hooves off the ground.
Her eyes held a look of pure, venomous resentment.
I screamed and stumbled backward, falling to the ground.
Ben heard the noise and rushed over, helping me up. "Clara, what is it? You look pale as a ghost."
I swallowed hard, my voice shaking. "Uncle Ben... that... that sow... something's wrong with her..."
I pointed toward the pen.
But the sow was back on all fours, casually munching on her feed as if nothing had happened. It was like I had imagined the whole thing.
In a daze, I noticed my phone had over a dozen missed calls and a flood of unread messages, all from Abby.
Clara, did you drink the soup or not? Why doesn't it look like my rib in the video?
Tell me the truth. Did you switch the bones?
Clara, you dare lie to me!
As I wondered how to reply, a call from an unknown number came through. I answered. All I could hear at first was heavy, labored breathing. Then, Abby's voice, seething with rage.
"Clara, you fed my rib to a pig? How could you..."
The line went dead. Immediately, my phone rang again. It was Leo.
"Clara, where are you? I need to talk to you, it's urgent!"
Hearing the panic in his voice, I knew for sure he was involved. There was no other reason for him to be this desperate to find me.
I cut him off with a cold laugh. "Leo, I've been thinking, and this isn't working out. Let's break up."
"Don't ever contact me again."
I hung up before he could respond. I didn't know what his connection to Abby was, but I figured if I stayed away from both of them, they couldn't hurt me.
But when I checked my home security feed on my phone, I saw Leo using a locksmith to pry open my apartment door.
I couldn't go back there.
I checked into a hotel for the night, deciding to figure out my next move in the morning.
I couldn't sleep.
At two in the morning, my phone started buzzing wildly. It was a video call from Abby.
After a long hesitation, I answered.
The face on the screen was a complete stranger, yet I could vaguely make out Abby's features. Her cheekbones were unnaturally high, her eyes were long, narrow, and slanted upwards, and a grotesque smile was plastered on her face.
"Guess where I am..."
The camera spun around. It was a pigpen. In the moonlight, I could see Uncle Ben's old sow undergoing a horrific transformation. Its snout was shrinking, its eyes were moving down and growing larger. A human face was beginning to emerge from the pig's head.
And then the creature, not quite human, not quite pig, opened its mouth and spoke in Abby's sickly sweet voice.
"Clara, we promised, remember? Best friends forever. Why did you break your promise...?"
A tidal wave of terror washed over me. The phone slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor, ending the call.
A crash of thunder rattled the window. A storm had rolled in. I was grateful I wasn't at home. This was a horror movie come to life.
Just as I let out a breath of relief, a notification popped up on my phone. It was from the couples app Leo and I used, which tracked our proximity to each other.
Your distance from your partner is now 5km... 3km... 900m...
My blood ran cold. How did he know where I was? Did he put a tracker on my phone? I did a quick check, but found nothing.
Then, a frantic knocking echoed from my hotel room door.
Was it Leo? But the app said he was still three hundred meters away.
A strange, melodic voice called from the other side of the door.
"Clara, it's me, your best friend Abby... open the door..."
The voice was a horrifying mix of Abby's and something animalistic.
Goosebumps prickled my skin. I slid down the door, my back pressed against the wood, my hand clamped over my mouth to stifle a scream.
My hands shaking, I fumbled for my phone to call the police. Just then, a message came through from Uncle Ben.
Clara, where are you? Something's happened at the farm! The old sow... she's talking! She keeps calling your name. It's terrifying. I've called the cops, do you want to come see?
But the thing that wasor wasn'tAbby was still outside my door. Hearing my silence, it began to claw at the wood, a high, piercing screech that set my teeth on edge.
My phone buzzed again. It was Ben.
The sow is getting worse. The police don't know what to do. It's speaking in full sentences now, says it's going to get even with you. Clara, did you mess with something you shouldn't have?
Before I could reply, the thing outside spoke again. "Clara, I know you're in there... why won't you open the door?"
Then, its voice dropped, becoming a gravelly, unfamiliar snarl. "Did you think you could hide from me? You can't escape the swap..."
Suddenly, there was a scraping sound at the window.
I whipped my head around. A dark silhouette was climbing up the side of the building, its shape visible against the rain-streaked glass.
My blood turned to ice. It wasn't the shape of a person.
And the voice outside my door hadn't sounded like Abby anymore, either.
Who were they?
Trapped, I didn't know what to do. My phone screen lit up. It was a new message from the anonymous account on the forum.

First, search for and download the MotoNovel app from Google. Then, open the app and use the code "295756" to read the entire book.