Katlyn Duncan - The Life After Trilogy - Soul Taken / Soul Possessed / Soul Betrayed

“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.”

I blinked and the vision disintegrated. What was that?

“What is this for?” I pointed at the wooden stick, aware the girl was staring at me.

Jamie swallowed, her eyes darting across Ally’s face. “I broke my arm once, and it itched like crazy. I found a ruler and it became my best friend for eight weeks.” She squinted her eyes a few times.

What kind of people did they hire at this hospital? “What?” I said.

Her head shook furiously. “Nothing. The stick is for scratching.” She moved her hand in a sawing movement.

The tingles started up again and I grabbed the stick, slid it between the skin and cast and rubbed it against Ally’s skin. I moaned in pleasure and leaned Ally’s head back against the pillow. “That—is—amazing.”

“I’m glad to help.” Jamie smiled. “I need to take your vitals now. Do you mind?”

“No,” I said. I’d Collected many human souls from hospitals and seen them take these “vitals”; it didn’t look too painful.

Jamie placed a cuff around my arm and pumped a small rubber ball. The cuff tightened around Ally’s skinny arm, smothering it. I bit Ally’s lip and turned away, willing the agony to end. I held my breath as I felt Ally’s heartbeat in her arm. What sadistic person thought up this torture? How did humans stand it?

When she got her reading the pressure subsided and I let out a breath with it.

Jamie next put a stethoscope in her ears and placed the round part on the exposed skin of Ally’s upper chest. The cold circle sent a shock through me. I shifted under it.

“Sorry.” She took it away and rubbed it with her palms. “I forget how cold it gets in here.”

With each test I anticipated a new bodily reaction so as not to alert this girl that Ally wasn’t Ally. Or human for that matter.

Be human, be human . I repeated the mantra in my head.

I watched Jamie work, her hands swift and gentle, navigating the areas around Ally’s bruised arm so as not to touch them. She leaned into the bed, examining Ally’s arm.

“I did just fall down an escalator,” I said. Jamie was looking a little too closely, surely she couldn’t see what the others could?

She jolted and dropped Ally’s arm. “You’re a quick healer,” was all she said.

Before I could respond, a nurse came into the room and checked Ally’s chart. She introduced herself as Nurse Lucy. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

I repeated my new mantra in my head. “Good.”

“You took a nasty tumble there. You were lucky to only come out with a broken leg and some bruises.” She checked Ally’s skin and her brows furrowed. “Well, you did have bruises… I see someone takes her Vitamin C.”

She made a note in the chart. “Well, it looks like if you are feeling okay, you can leave right after the doctor sees you. I need a parent or guardian to sign your discharge papers.”

“Marie Lopez is here,” Jamie said.

“Who’s Marie?” I said before thinking. I pointed at my head, hoping that I could use Ally’s fall as an excuse for my oversight. “I meant, where is Marie?”

“Right here, Ms. Ally.”