What was she doing? Harriet had been dealing so well with the police. She’d held his hand as she watched the whole thing without even crying. But then she’d pulled away from him and left the building.
Kasper had to go after her. She was disintegrating. Harriet was disintegrating, and he had no choice. He was petrified.
He took a step forwards then stopped, foot hovering outside the building. He couldn’t do this. He wasn’t like Rima, who had gone charging outside after Harriet without a second thought last time. His heart was thundering in his ears, and all he wanted to do was run and hide, but he could see Harriet’s atoms peeling away faster and faster as she walked.
She was only ten metres away. He should run after her. His muscles refused to move. He was going to throw up.
Kasper hated himself. Harriet needed him, and he was a coward. Just like he had been with Lisa. Kasper had been too caught up in fear to stand up to the Tricksters when she’d begged Kasper to help her. Even when it was clear that the constant demands on her power were causing her to disintegrate. Even when Rufus had offered him a way to save his friend, by asking Kasper to let them use his power.
He couldn’t do that again. Not to Harriet. He wasn’t going to let her disappear right in front of him after one night together.
Kasper shook himself. He could do this. He could.
He swallowed a lump of pure fear that had stuck in his throat and broke into a sprint. Somewhere behind him, Greg let out a delighted holler of disbelief.
Kasper made it to Harriet, sweeping her up in his arms. But when he turned, the air felt gelatine-thick around him. Her limbs were heavy and loose, her expression vacant.
He managed to walk a metre back towards the building, powered by pure determination, before he started to forget what he was supposed to be doing. His speed slowed, and he pushed back against it.
It was too late. Harriet was a cloud in his arms, shivering back and forth in the breeze. This was a suicide mission. They were both going to disintegrate.
Kasper pressed his lips to the remains of Harriet’s cheek. He couldn’t tell which atoms were his and which were hers. He had failed. He hadn’t been brave or quick or strong enough to save her. Gorgeous, confident, clever Harriet, who had trusted him. He had never deserved her.
When the force of an impact shivered through him, he was unprepared. Something had passed through him. Someone. That was all it took for his subconscious to come alive.
It awakened some base instinct inside him – the power he’d pushed down for decades seized control for the first time.
Human. Soul. Take it.
Kasper turned his head, the ragged edges of his mouth forming a gaping, hungry chasm. Whenever he was near a living human, all he could think about was possessing them. He got the urge to join their souls inside the bodies and take them for himself. His power repulsed him. He never let himself think about it.
Sometimes, he found himself daydreaming about this moment, completely overcome with the desperate need to know what it felt like. Whenever a human entered Mulcture Hall, his power whispered at him, persuading him to try it, just the once. He’d come close before, but he’d always held back the monster inside. Even when it hurt, he’d always stopped it. Being in the entrance hall with the police had been just bearable – he could push the hunger down, ignore the saliva that collected in his mouth whenever they passed close by.
But nothing could stop him now. The human had touched him, and all his control was gone.
Dropping Harriet, he latched on to the police officer who had walked through him. He passed inside the body, which jolted at the force of his determined entry. It was easy and natural, now that he wasn’t fighting against himself.
A feeling of panic and revulsion passed through the neurons to Kasper as the body’s soul fought him. He pressed it deep down into the subconscious to make room for himself.
Stretching out, he took a second to acclimatize, and then connected. His soul clicked into place in the brain. Immediately, vision jolted through him. Light became shapes became eyes, and then a mouth and face and a body. He had a living body.
Kasper let himself spread out, feeling along the nerves to find the fingers and toes, firing electric instructions down the pathways to wriggle his new limbs. Deep inside the body’s brain, a voice screamed. Kasper ignored it.
He stared around at the world with real vision for the first time in decades, breathed air with lungs that were fresh and new. The old soul’s terror changed into Kasper’s delight, and the body smiled.
Abruptly, Kasper remembered who he was, and what he’d done, and what had happened to Harriet. He twisted, stumbling as he found his new centre of gravity. He searched the air for any last remaining traces of Harriet. There. A twisting spiral of grey.
He pulled the cloud of molecules inside the body with him, keeping what was left of Harriet safe.
Kasper walked towards the building in slow and stumbling steps. He could feel Harriet was struggling for freedom, so he squeezed her reassuringly, pleased that there was enough of her left to panic. The small voice in the depths of the brain was still screaming.
Inside the foyer, he released Harriet. For a moment, he thought it was too late for her, but then the cloud twisted in mid-air and re-formed as Harriet. She gasped for breath, heaved like she was about to vomit, and then stood upright.
“Kasper?” she asked, looking wide-eyed at the body.
He opened the body’s mouth, trying to remember how to vibrate vocal cords and speak.
“Me,” he forced out, and then, “Yes – it’s – me.”
“You’ve possessed her,” she said, eyes widening in what was either shock or delight. “Is that your power?”
Kasper twisted the body’s muscles in a slow smile. He couldn’t understand why he’d resisted the urge to possess all these years. It felt so good. It felt inevitable.
He lifted a hand to touch Harriet’s cheek, but Felix dived for Kasper, pushing his way inside the body and colliding solidly with him.
Kasper pulled Felix close, pleased that he’d joined him. It would be so much better if he had someone here with him. That would drown out the sound of screaming.
“Let go of the body, Kasper. Now,” Felix said, his voice layered with the full force of his hypnotism.
Against his will, Kasper found himself releasing his hold on the brain. He slipped free of the body, as the soul he’d pushed aside expanded back into the space he’d taken from it. Kasper fell to the ground with Felix sprawled out on top of him.
It took Kasper a second to process what had happened. Then he burst into action, furiously writhing underneath Felix. He had to get back inside the body and retake control before it disappeared for ever. It was his, and Felix had no right to force him out. It had felt so good, being inside something so warm and alive and full of energy. He needed that back, right now.
Felix hissed, “What the hell are you doing?” and held on more tightly to Kasper.
“It’s mine!” he yelled, struggling to escape. “Let me go! I need it!”
Panic exploded in his mind like fireworks. He couldn’t live without a body, not now he knew what it felt like. It was so cold and vulnerable and dull out here without a solid form. His instincts had been right all along. He was meant to have a body. It was his right.
Felix fought him, pinning Kasper to the ground with a surprising amount of strength.