a leather couch.
Throwing the covers off I stared at the body that was very much corporeal and not mine. I inspected the arm I’d covered my face with. Tiny blonde hairs stood up on end at the sudden change in temperature. I grabbed a chunk of the golden hair attached to my head and pulled.
“Ow!”
Heat crept up my—no, not my, Ally’s body. Splotches of red mixed with the blue and purple bruises that peppered her skin. A rapid thumping throbbed inside of me.
A heartbeat!
I squeezed my eyes shut. This had to be a dream, or some sort of not-so-hilarious prank. I channeled the power I used to transition everywhere to transition out of the body. Opened my eyes and saw Calliope still in the same spot.
I slapped a hand on the bed. “Argh!”
Cooper appeared at Calliope’s side. “Shit,” he said in disbelief.
I stared at him. “No kidding! What happened?”
“Can you get out?” Cooper asked.
“Oh wow Cooper, I didn’t even think of that. Thank you so much for the suggestion.” Ally’s husky voice sounded strange in my head.
“It’s a valid question, Maggie,” Calliope snapped at me.
I crossed Ally’s arms. “I tried to transition out but I can’t.”
Cooper started pacing the small room. “Did you see what happened?” he asked.
I sucked on Ally’s lip. “There were a lot of people there. It could have been anyone.”
Calliope leaned forward. “Do you remember anything else?”
I lifted Ally’s arms, that were riddled with small bumps, and shivered. “Something pulled me inside of her. It was weird, almost as if her body, like, sucked me inside of it.” I stopped talking and moved Ally’s arm closer to her face.
“We know,” Cooper said unhelpfully.
Ignoring Cooper I twisted Ally’s arm in front of my eyes and saw the outline of my soul moving inside it.
“I can see me—” I swallowed. “In her? Is this normal?”
Cooper snorted. “Nothing about this is normal, but, yes, we can see you too.” He waved his hands, encompassing me. “Inside of her. You know most souls match the body they belong to so usually there isn’t a difference but I can see your soul… and her body.”
I stuffed her arm under the covers, hiding the fact that my soul was inside a human body.
Creepy.
“If I’m in here,” I stuttered, “where is she?”
They looked at each other.
“What did Felix say?” Calliope asked Cooper, changing the subject.
“Felix knows about this?” I shrieked. “Did he tell you how I can get out?”
“He said that if you couldn’t get out on your own then it might be something else,” Cooper said, moving toward the window avoiding my eyes.
“Like what?” I asked, even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“A Possession,” Cooper said.
“Excuse me?” I said affronted. “I did not possess her body. Her body possessed me!”
“I’ve heard of this,” Calliope said sagely. “It was a practice the Shadowed used centuries ago to possess influential bodies so they could walk among the humans, procuring souls for their side.”
“Like zombies?”
“In a way, yes,” she said.
“Who are the Shadowed?” I looked from Cooper to Calliope. “Were they there? Were those the ones you were fighting when Ally fell?”
At that moment Aaron poked his head into the room. “We have company.” He looked at me and squinted. “Can you guys—?”
“Yes,” the three of us snapped. Aaron stepped back into the hall.
“Just sit tight and don’t talk if you can help it,” Cooper said. “We don’t want to alert anyone that Ally isn’t Ally.”
“Why?”
Cooper’s shoulders sagged. “The longer she isn’t well, the longer she stays here; we need to get back to the house where the wards can protect her.”
“And me?” I said.
“Yes,” Cooper nodded. “That’s what I meant.”
“Fine,” I watched Cooper and Calliope disappear from the room, leaving me alone.
An uncomfortable twinge spread across Ally’s arm. I scratched it with her long fingernails. When the sensation receded, I traced a finger across her arm, making those little bumps again. Then the twinge reappeared on Ally’s leg. I tugged the sheets off her left leg and saw a pink cast covering her from knee to foot. I scratched at the hard cast but the feeling didn’t go away.
“Here.” A wooden tongue depressor appeared in front of my face.
I sat back in the bed hurriedly.
A petite girl, around Ally’s age, stood by the bed. Her long dark hair twisted at the nape of her neck, sticking out in all directions. I looked at the badge that hung from a thin rope across her chest. It read, “Jamie Blackhorn, Volunteer.”
The name struck me as something I should be familiar with. A memory of Ally’s surged forward.
“Watch it, freak!” Ally snapped, her books scattering across the floor at her feet.
Heather, Krystal and a few other classmates scrambled to pick up Ally’s things from the floor.
Jamie looked up at Ally, terror etched across her face. “I’m—”
Heather and Krystal flanked Ally, all three pairs of eyes glaring at her.
Jamie shivered under her baggy paint-stained jeans and T-shirt.
Ally leaned over toward the girl’s trembling body. “Stay out of my way or I will destroy you.”
A tear streaked Jamie’s cheek as she nodded at Ally and bolted down the hall.
Ally watched the girl go, turning her glare on the rest of the kids that had formed a crowd around her. “And that goes for the rest of you.”
