Page 216 of Love at First Fright

“Nah. You’ve been beaten black and blue over the last week. I think you deserve a rest.”

I adjusted my grip, cradling him closer. My throat tightened. I wanted to hold him as long as possible. Every second a gift I’d never thought I’d have—solid arms, a beating heart, the weight of another person against me.

Because soon I’d have to let go. Soon I’d fade back into nothing, and Charlie would be alone, and—

Wait.

I frowned. Shifted Charlie’s weight.

A beating heart.

A bloody beating heart. Brad was… alive. Alive and well. Ish.

The other times I’d possessed Brad, I’d felt my energy draining like water through cupped hands.

But I’d been in Brad’s body for… what? Ages now.

And I felt fine.

Better than fine. Strong. Solid. No flickering at the edges of my consciousness, no sensation of being stretched too thin. Brad’s very much functional, pounding heartbeat thrummed steadily in my chest. His lungs expanded and contracted without effort. Blood pumped through his veins, warm and real.

I’d been running on nothing even before I dove into Brad’s corpse. Scattered and weak from Cornelius shredding me. I shouldn’t have been able to possess anything, let alone maintain it for this long.

But…

But I wasn’t maintaining anything, was I?

I wasn’t holding myself inside Brad’s body through sheer force of will. Wasn’t clinging desperately to meat and bone whilst my own spectral form screamed to return.

I just… was.

The realisation hit all at once.

Brad was gone. Cornelius had eaten his soul, left nothing but an empty shell. And I’d poured myself into that emptiness. Filled every crevice, every corner, every cell.

There was no Brad to push me out.

No consciousness waiting in the wings to reclaim its rightful place.

Just me.

I tried to do what I always did when possessing someone—let my awareness split. Pull back just enough to feel the edges of my true form, spectral and separate.

Nothing.

There was no sense of me and him as separate entities I was holding together through concentration.

Just… one. Unified.

I couldn’t leave, even if I wanted to.

Oh.

Oh, fuck.

Was I… alive?

Actually, properly, permanently alive?