On Ghost Festival, My Missing Body-Swapped Husband Returned

On All Souls' Day, the fake Marlin husband who'd bound himself to a time-traveling system and gone off to run missions in an ancient world suddenly came home.

He'd been gone three years without a single word. Everyone said he was never coming back.

But now here he was, out of nowhere, holding on to me like he'd never let go.

"Carrie, I'm home!"

That familiar scent of mint filled my nose.

With shaking hands I clutched at his clothes and asked,

"These past few years, were you all right?"

He fell silent for a few seconds. Without thinking, I held my breath.

Then I heard him say, "It's all behind me now. As long as I could finish the mission, I didn't mind how hard it got."

In that instant, it was like ice closing over me.

Because that was the safe word Marlin Barnes and I had agreed on.

If I ever asked him that question, then no matter the situation, he had to answer:

"Without my one-of-a-kind rose beside me, nothing was ever all right."

So this man wearing my husband's face was not Marlin at all.

...

My stomach clenched, wave after wave.

I forced the nausea down and tilted my head back to look at that familiar, handsome face.

He was gazing at me tenderly, his eyes full of longing.

Maybe I'd been quiet too long, because he asked, "What's wrong? Aren't you happy I'm back?"

My nails dug into the soft flesh of my palm, and the pain snapped me awake.

"I just couldn't quite believe it for a second."

The man smiled. "Well, I was gone three whole years this time. It's only natural you'd need a minute to get used to me being back."

I stared at his face, searching for a crack in it, but the man's expression stayed flawless. I asked,

"Are you hungry? What do you feel like eating? I'll make it."

"A fiery spicy stew, a stir-fried pork skillet, spicy fried chicken..."

He rattled off one spicy comfort dish after another, and the more I heard, the colder I felt inside.

Because these were all the dishes Marlin loved.

Back when I used to ask him, he'd name these same ones without a second thought.

A person's eating habits are hard to change. Was this man really not Marlin?

I watched him step inside, pull out his slippers and change into them with easy familiarity, and settle into the seat that had always been his.

Every move he made matched the old habits exactly.

For a moment I felt almost dizzy, and I couldn't help wondering: maybe he really had just happened to forget our agreement?

After all, like he'd said, this parting had lasted three years.

One hot dish after another went onto the table.

The only difference was that I'd stirred chopped scallions into the spicy stew.

Marlin loved all kinds of spicy food, but the one thing he couldn't stand was the scallions used for aroma.

He always said they had a raw stink to them, that just smelling them made him want to gag. It was a physical thing with him. Ordinarily, if a dish had scallions in it, he'd rather go without.

I gripped my chopsticks, holding my breath without meaning to, and watched the man brush the scallions aside with his chopsticks, pinch up some meat, and put it in his mouth.

No hesitation. Not even a puzzled question.

The motion was completely natural.

There was a roaring in my head, and everything inside me churned.

This man wearing my husband's face was not Marlin at all.

I bit down hard on the soft flesh of my tongue, fighting to steady the pounding in my chest, and in that moment I was filled with dread.

If he wasn't Marlin, then where was my Marlin?

Was he still alive? Could he ever come back to me?

I clenched my teeth and swore to myself that no matter what, I would get to the bottom of this and bring Marlin home.

As if he'd sensed my stare,

the man abruptly turned his head and fixed his eyes on me.

His eyes were very dark, like black glass with nothing living behind it.

"Carrie, what's the matter? Are you keeping something from me?"

He leaned in close, his eyes full of scrutiny.

I could almost smell the familiar note of mint on him, the cologne Marlin always liked.

For an instant my breath caught, and a chill spread down my back.

This was the third time Marlin had come back through time.

He and I were college sweethearts, the clichd kind of love at first sight. He chased me for two years before we ended up together.

There was no melodrama of cheating, no scheming other woman worming her way in.

After graduation we married and became a happy young couple.

But five years ago, a car crash destroyed everything.

In that horrific crash, Marlin's parents died on the spot, and I was left paralyzed from the waist down, sentenced to spend my whole life in bed.

Marlin nearly went mad. He cared for me while running everywhere to find doctors, hoping someone could save me.

One night, through the thin door, I heard him kneeling in front of a doctor, breaking down, sobbing until his voice cracked:

"She's only twenty-five. Why? Why wasn't it me who died"

Later, he suddenly told me, all secretive: "Carrie, I have a way to cure you! And if it works, I might even be able to bring my parents back."

That was when I learned he'd been bound by a time-traveling system. As long as he completed his missions, he'd be given rewards.

His first wish was for my body to be whole again.

Two months later, feeling suddenly returned to my body, and I could actually get up and walk. Everyone called it a medical miracle.

And Marlin, who had been missing for those two months, suddenly reappeared.

He gripped my hand tightly, his face lit with excitement: "The system was telling the truth!"

Only then did I understand that during his two missing months, he'd followed the system through time, crossing into another era to carry out a mission.

"Just two more, and I can bring my parents back."

Marlin held my hand, his eyes shining, and I couldn't help sharing his joy.

The second time, he was gone a full year before he reappeared, and the next day his mother was there in the house.

It was as though no one remembered the crash at all.

Marlin was elated, already preparing for the next crossing.

I felt a flicker of unease. I held his hand and asked, as if to make sure:

"Are you really certain it won't be dangerous?"

Marlin reassured me: "There's difficulty, of course. There's no free lunch in this world. But I believe that if I try hard enough, I can get it done."

"Look, didn't I bring you and Mom back safe and sound?"

"Don't worry. No matter what, I'll finish the mission. I can't bear to lose you."

The promise weighed heavily. My unease only grew, but I knew I couldn't stop him from going to save his own father.

After that, he left, and this time he was gone for three years.

The memories were painful, no question. I lifted my eyes to the man in front of me and said:

"I just miss Mom and Dad a little."

If Marlin's mission had failed, then Dad probably couldn't have come back either.

The man across from me froze for a moment, then nodded:

"You're right, we should go see them."

The car moved slowly along the road.

Standing at the door of Marlin's parents' home, I felt a moment of nerves.

"Knock, knock, knock"

"Coming, coming."

The door opened.

"Mom, is Dad home?"

The words were out of me almost before I saw Thelma. I needed to know, right then.

"He is, he is! Come in, come in."

Her eyes moved past me to Marlin, and they went red at the rims. She rushed forward and threw her arms around him.

"Marlin! I thought I'd never see you again."

"My sweet boy. These years must have been so hard on you."

His eyes reddened in an instant too, and he held her tight.

"Mom, I missed you and Dad so much."

He steadied her and looked over at me.

"Let's get inside. Better not let Carrie see Dad out here first, or she'll be all worked up inside."

So he knew everything.

My chest went tight as I met those laughing eyes of his.

He knew I suspected him. He knew I was desperate to confirm Dad's condition, to test whether he was really Marlin.

I bit down hard on my teeth, until I tasted the sweet, metallic tang of blood.

In the living room the TV droned on, and faintly I could hear Colin and Marlin chatting.

"Carrie, what's wrong?"

Thelma's face was still bright with the joy of the whole family back together. I clenched my jaw and said quietly, "Mom, I don't think this man is the real Marlin."

She stopped and looked at me, suspicious. "What are you talking about? How could he not be Marlin?"

"After he came back, I checked the code we agreed on before, and he couldn't answer it. And he eats scallions now."

She waved it off. "It's just a code. Maybe he forgot. Three years have passed. It's perfectly normal for his tastes to change."

"He went through so much to save us. Can't you stop being so paranoid?"

My heart sank. She didn't want to look any deeper, that much was clear.

Waiting wears a person down. For three years Marlin had sent no word, and she had lived every day in fear and dread.

More than once she'd called me in pieces, saying she'd dreamed of Marlin lying on the ground covered in blood.

She said she'd already lost her husband. She couldn't lose her son too.

Thelma carried a dish out. Through the clear glass door I watched the three of them inside, cozy and happy.

That "person" sitting in Marlin's place, smiling, soaking up Colin and Thelma's care and love.

I drew in a breath and went out.

Just then Marlin suddenly looked up and asked me, "Carrie, I hear you suspect I'm not Marlin?"

One short sentence, and it hit me like a bolt from a clear sky.

I looked at Thelma, whose eyes darted away, and I understood at once. She had gone and told this man everything we'd just said.

For that instant all I could feel was my heart slamming in my chest.

"You never used to eat scallions."

I lowered my gaze to hide what was in my eyes. The man smiled.

"It's been three years, after all. And the mission was brutal. Forget scallions. At the worst, when I was starving, I even thought about slicing off my own flesh and boiling it to eat."

"How could I be picky about anything after that?"

So he still didn't know about the safety code.

Thelma's face filled with pained sympathy. She lifted a piece of meat with her chopsticks and set it on his plate.

"It's all our fault. If it weren't for us, you'd never have had to suffer like that."

"Carrie, stop being so paranoid. If it weren't for Marlin, you'd still be lying half-dead in a hospital bed!"

She stared at me and spaced out every word. "Marlin finally made it home, and you're saying things like this."

"You haven't had a change of heart, have you? Saying all this because you want to be rid of him?!"

"Mom!"

I stared at her in disbelief. Beside her, Colin chimed in too.

"This is post-traumatic stress in Carrie, that's why she's so paranoid. Son, now that you're back, spend more time with her."

Before I could get another word out, "Marlin" gripped my hand tight.

He looked at me, pitiful. "Carrie, I'm just having trouble adjusting, suddenly back in the modern world from ancient times."

His fingers stroked lightly against my palm, and in that instant my skin crawled.

Swallowing down the nausea, I asked, "Just adjusting, and your tastes changed?"

He nodded, smiling.

So he still didn't know about the code between me and the real Marlin.

Seeing that I didn't press any further, Colin and Thelma both relaxed at the same moment, and the room warmed up at once.

This time he even ate the things he used to hate right out in the open, and Marlin's parents still only watched him with faces full of love.

They fussed over him, asking after his every comfort, as if they wanted to make up for the three years of love he'd missed.

I stole a careful glance at the man, and I didn't miss the smugness and contempt in his eyes.

That night I tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Then I heard the door being pushed softly open.

The next second, the blanket beside me was pressed down hard, a burning body pressed up against me, and a hand slid in under the covers.

"Carrie, I've missed you so much."