Young Writers Society

I looked around the room, trying to see if there were any alternatives.

There weren't.

"Staying in him is the best choice right now," I said. I sat down next to my body, making sure not to move it too roughly. "When my body gets injured like that, I usually hop out of it. It's easier that way - I can take care of my own wounds, and I don't have to deal with the pain."

I gave him my signature smirk - finally feeling a little bit like myself again. "I'm guessing you probably wouldn't want to be stuck with a stab wound either," I said. I glanced back at my body. "I can possess objects, too - dolls, robots, and mannequins are usually what I do when I can't get a person. But Trey was pretty easy to take by surprise, so..."

I shrugged.

"He's also loaded," I added.

I leaned back against the back of the bed. "And I don't really have a specific place to go right now - I need to get back to...my home at some point, but it's something I can't really do with my wound like that."

Bo nodded slowly. He realized he was still processing the fact that it wasn’t actually Trey talking, but Skull speaking through him. He looked on blankly, trying to figure out if he even had opinions on this. Did he have anything to say?

It dawned on him that if Trey had been planning on killing him that night, that Skull possessing him and causing all of this instead might’ve saved him.

He... he didn’t want to think about that.

He still had questions about the present, never mind the hypothetical future.

“So you’re... what are you, then? A person with powers? A spirit? A ghost?” he asked. “Where even is home for you? Here? Another country? Another world?”

"All of the above."

I straightened a little, but still continued to lean up against the back of the bed - it was a little strange laying next to my own body, but I was used to weird things by this point.

I wasn't sure how much of what I wanted to say would be believable. Nathaniel and Asmira still didn't fully believe my story, and I doubted a random stranger would. But the least I could do was try to explain what I was.

...Complicated as it was.

"The world I'm supposed to be on right now is a world that some people go to when they die," I explained. "It's not everyone who's dead, but it's a good amount. Everyone there gets some kind of power when they end up there."

I pointed up at my head.

"Mine's possession," I said. "But the world I came from before that one is Earth. From London, specifically. Long story short, I was a ghost for a bit, decided to pass on, and ended up back alive again on that other world."

My hand fell back to my side, and I looked up at the ceiling.

"And now I'm here with a stab wound in my side, because one of my...acquaintances somehow has more enemies than I do."

Bo nodded slowly with understanding. He decided to lean on the wall, putting his hands in his pockets, instead of sitting on the bed beside Skull's sleeping frame. It just seemed less strange that way.

"Ah. Makes sense," he said. "Can you still die there? In the uh, world you're from, where people go when they die."

"Probably," I said. "I haven't tested that yet, and I'm not planning on finding out."

I sat up. With the stab wound taken care of and the danger gone, it was time to focus on something else - getting more food from that machine. I hadn't gotten to finish my roll, and there was so much more to choose from. Wasting Trey's money also seemed like a great idea, given how much of it he had.

Stretching a little, I headed over to the door.

I paused when I put my hand on the doorknob, glancing back towards my body and the man beside it. "I'm going to get some food from that machine out in the hallway," I said. He seemed like a nice guy - there was no point in leaving without a warning.

“More of those sugary cinnabun things? Ah. Okay,” Bo said with a nod.

He knew Skull was using Trey’s money, but he was too tired to protest. Either Trey’s body was hungry, Skull was hungry, or Skull just liked the vending machine food. Either way, the money was spending was probably gained by questionable means on Trey’s part. Why no use it to feed a hungry soul?

Then again, all that sugar would go to Trey’s stomach, and Trey would have to deal with that later... if it didn’t sit well, or if it all went to his stomach.

Did Trey have dietary restrictions? Maybe he should’ve asked. Was he thinking too much into this?

When I returned a few minutes later, I had bought myself a feast. I was more than a little surprised that I had been able to carry it all, but I wasn't going to question it too much. When I inevitably got back to the world I was supposed to be on, I'd be set with snacks for at least a week.

...Assuming I didn't eat most of them here.

I made sure to grab a few more of those rolls. The one-eyed guy - who I still didn't know the name of - had called them cinnabuns, but I hadn't ever heard of those before. Something about the name did sound familiar, though.

I deposited my feast down on the little desk in the corner of the room, selected the biggest roll I could find, and returned to where my body was laying motionless on the bed.

Then I dug in.

It was just as good as it had been when I was eating it out in the hallway. I bet Asmira and Nathaniel hadn't ever had something as good as this. Maybe even Lucy hadn't - when I got back to my real world, I'd have to get as many cinnamon buns as I could.

Skull had gone while Bo was lost in thought, and when he returned he was loaded with snacks. Clearly, Skull was hungry.

"Have you ever had one of those before?" Bo asked.

"No," I said, my mouth full of food.

I swallowed, wiped the sticky, gooey part of the roll off of my face with my sleeve, and then crumbled up the now empty plastic packaging.

"I never got a chance to on the first world I came from," I said, "and the world I was just on doesn't have anything like this."

Bo nodded. He was feeling a little restless. He wasn't sure what to do with his hands. Should he sit? Should he stand? He stuck with leaning against the wall, but he still felt jittery.

"Ah. Well, if you like those, then you should try fresh-baked ones sometime. I've got a recipe I haven't used in a while. Depending on how quickly you need to get home, maybe I could make you the real deal, instead of the packaged, preserved kind."

I perked up at the suggestion.

"I'm not going anywhere anytime soon," I said. I didn't usually get offered free food, especially when I ended up in other worlds, but who was I to argue? I was always done for more to eat. "When can you make it?"

I glanced around the room.

"...How can you make it?" I added, realizing that there wasn't anything that you could use to make food in here.

"I have an apartment. With an oven. And ingredients," Bo explained simply, grinning a little at Skull's eagerness.

"But I figure you wanna wait 'til your body heals," he said, gesturing to the sleeping frame on the bed. "And uh, you're still in Trey. And I kind of don't want to bring him to my apartment, even if like, you're controlling him or whatever."

I bit my lip.

I didn't want to hop back into my body any time soon, but the temptation of getting fresh, homemade food was very strong. I glanced back down at my body. Was food really worth the pain I'd be stuck with if I did what Bo wanted?

I crossed my arms.

"Technically, Trey has no idea any of this is happening right now," I pointed out. I tapped my forehead with my finger. "I knocked him out before I was possessing him. I didn't want to deal with a backseat driver. So if we did go to your apartment, he'd have no idea."

I thought for a moment.

"I could possess my body again," I reluctantly said, "and find something or someone else to possess so I don't have to deal with that stab wound."

I perked up a little more.

"And we can figure out a way to get Trey out of your hair for a little bit," I said, giving my signature smirk. I wasn't sure how yet, but there was definitely potential...

Trey was unconscious for all of this? That... that didn’t feel right. Sure, Trey wasn’t exactly the guy he wanted to see, in this context, knowing his intent and all, but they used to be childhood friends. He didn’t know what Skull meant by figuring out how to get Trey out of his hair, but Skull’s mischeivous grin worried him.

He didn’t want Trey to get hurt.

“...What if you just possessed me again but didn’t fight for control? Can you do that? Just kind of... sit in my body while I hold yours and bring it back to my place? I don’t know if that’s possible, but I was just thinking we could leave Trey in this motel room. Just leave him on the bed, let him come to and figure things out from there. Seems simpler than trying to get back to wherever his car is, or take him back to his home. Neither of which seem like safe options, either.”

I was a little disappointed by how mundane his plan was, but it definitely had merit.

"I can do that," I said. "I don't do it a lot, but it's possible."

We could worry about me getting another body to possess later - in the meantime, I'd just worry about getting to his apartment. There was probably something that I could possess there. If not, I'd improvise like I always did.