Page 16 of Possess Me! (I Want You To)

Once, in a fit of rage, Lydia had banished me to the Nothing for an entire year. When I’d finally been released, it had taken a full week of her gloating to realize just how much time had been stolen from me.

Not that time should even matter to me anymore.

I was dead after all.

Who cared if I disappeared?

That was what I wanted anyway, so why did it matter how it happened?

Except, even I knew that without an anchor, eventually being stuck in the Nothing was sure to drive me insane. My sense of self was all I had left, and with each trip into the darkness I lost a little more of it. Technically, becoming permanently corporeal was a fairly simple fix. The fact I existed at all meant I still had an anchor to cling to. The twist? The bearer of my talisman had to actively wish me beside them—which meant they had to be aware of the power they held over me.

I wasn’t willing to give that away again.

I could deal with the Nothing when I knew firsthand that being held by a knowing host held dangers far worse than the darkness.

Lydia had proven that.

I could still remember the eyes of the little boy I’d been forced to help Lydia torment. The way he’d stared unseeingly at me, trembling, tear stains streaking his pale cheeks, as I’d held him immobile. I’d known him. Before the mess. Before I’d died. Amanda’s son.

Which was why it gave the murderous bitch great joy to watch how hurting him affected me. Angry, bitter, then numb as I accepted that I had no choice but to do as she said. The kid had been the spitting image of the person who had taught me what kindness was. To crush him felt like defiling her memory.

Lydia had tortured us both simultaneously. She was efficient like that.

Why do one thing when you can do two?

I chose not to think of the boy’s name. I didn’t like being reminded of that time in my un-life. It didn’t help. Nothing would. It was a thing that had happened that I couldn’t change.

“I’m being haunted—” Luca’s voice was getting louder, and I chased after it, wandering through the empty inky-black. I sifted through the strands of reality. Every word he spoke was a sunbeam breaking through the clouds of my captivity.

When I finally burst free the scents and smells of the real-world rushed forward. Bright. Loud. Colorful. Blurs of shapes that shifted and evolved until the first thing I recognized was the scent of—

Cereal.

We were eating cereal again.

Why was I surprised?

Like always, Luca was talking to Violet. His phone had been fixed—or replaced, it was hard to tell. Though I figured all I would have to do to find out was check whether or not he still had the I’m a lucky little ducky sticker stuck to the back of his phone.

“Yes, I’m sure.” Luca continued, poking at a stray piece of marshmallow from his current bowl of Lucky Charms. “No, I don’t know how it happened, or who is haunting me.”

Huh.

He wasn’t as stupid as I’d thought.

“Kinda hard not to notice when money is appearing all over the fucking place—and you catch a photo of yourself on the Five O’clock News that—miraculously—explains exactly where it all came from.” Luca blinked, then shuddered as I exited his body and floated to the kitchen sink. Right now I was too weak to be tangible, so I simply observed, curious to see the effects of my handiwork.

Luca didn’t seem relieved.

You’d think, considering the amount of zeros that populated his bank statements, he would be glad to receive money unsolicited. There was no reason to be upset. I’d worn a disguise. How had he recognized himself in the first place?

Besides, it wasn’t like I’d had a choice.

Before—when my only goal had been getting my cock wet, those few hours of physicality had been a walk in the park. My targets always wanted me to touch them after all, even going as far as to command me to do so, unaware that with every uttered plea they made me more tangible.

This—what I was doing with Luca—was new territory.

I’d never had an unaware host before.

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