Imprint (7 page)

The other only smirked wryly. “Sorry, Sean,
but
that’s not possible.
I’m a permanent resident now and you’ll have to deal with that.”

“No –
”

“There’s nothing you can do to change this. You can only accept it.
C’
est la vie
,
right?”

And Sean, in one wild moment of hysteria, remembered why he had dropped French all those years ago.

Chapter
5: In not-so-loving memory of

Even though he had only ever imagined it to be endless nothingness, he had always secretly hoped that death would be a little more glamorous than this. Sure, he wasn’t asking for perpetual youth or pearly white gates or an ‘afterlife’ where beautiful people sat around drinking non-alcoholic cocktails for the rest of eternity – but really,
this
was simply disappointing. It made life suddenly seem a lot more preferable. Maybe that was the point. Maybe death was simply
a label given
to the time in which people were
shown everything they missed out on in life and how they should have appreciated it when they had the chance.
God
, if he existed,
had a twisted sense of humour.

H
e was pretty sure he had spe
nt a lengthy amount of time
standing in the middle of the room in an almost catatonic state. He couldn’t sit down, because he could never manage to make contact with the seat. It didn’t matter though. His legs never ached, even after hours of being stationary. It was a surreal
experience. The body in the bed
had drifted in and out of sleep
continuously
during the night and Sean was u
nsure whether to be afraid of Drew
or not.

“How long am I going to be like this?”
He finally decided to break a record eight hours of
silenc
e.

Drew
gave what sou
nded like a grunt of annoyance.
“I don’t know. Don’t worry, you’ll f
a
de away eventually though,” he
mumbled sleepily,
as if this reminder was
sup
posed to calm him somehow.

“I’m
what?
”

“You got a hearing problem or something?”

“I heard you the first time –”

“Then why the indignant squawk?”

Sean
bristled, flexing his hands, wishing more than anything to cause some kind of pain to this
parasite
.
“I’m sorry,”
he said calmly
. “Should I not b
e just the tiniest bit worried
that I’m going to
fade out of existence?
”

“Eh, you’ll get used
to it soon enough. Fact of death
.” He
didn’t e
ven have the decency to open his
eyes.
He acted like he
was talking about the weather: the forecast for today is cloudy with a 100% chance of
getting kicked out of your body by a psychotic dead person.

“This is crazy,” Sean
muttered, and started to pace again subconsciously.

Yawn. “I thought you’d already gotten over that phase.”

“Well, how long do I have?”

“Until what?”

“Until I
don’t exist anymore.”

Drew
cracked one dul
l eye open to watch the pacing with a bored expression.
“Quite a while I’d say. I’
d
been wandering around for four years. Met someone a few months ago who’d been around for seven already. Depends on the person, I think, but ten at the most.”

“You
met someone?”

There came a muffled snort. “What? You think I’
m the only person that’s
ever died?”

“Oh.
”
He stopped pacing.
“How can I
get my body back?”

“You can’t
.
There’s only on
e way; the s
ame way I got into your body.”

Sean swore loudly,
the string of profa
nities erupting from his mouth in sheer desperation.
“This is crazy,” he said again, as though if he said it enough times things would make sense again. But hell, he was already way past that stage.
This situation was more confusing than females.

“How many more times are you going to keep repeating that?”
Drew
asked.

“You’re a selfish bastard,” Sean
said simply.

“I know.”

“You’re a thief, in the worst way possible.”

“Keep going
.”

Sean was incredulous. “You don’t feel anything?” he questioned. “
No guilt or -
”

“Save me the lecture. I’m selfish, okay? Everyone’s selfish. It’s called human nature
.”

Sean opened his mouth angrily to protest – he still had more to say, he still wanted a chance to rage and shout and scream. He had a right to, dammit. He’d lost his whole life in a matter of 24 hours
.
However, at that exact moment, the argument was cut off abruptly when a shrill
Beep Beep Beep
sounded throughout the room.

“What was that?” Drew
asked
.

“My phone.”

“Well, where is it?”

Sean ground his teeth together and clenched his hands into knotted fists, fingers woven together tightly in a tangled mound of white knuckles. “Why should I tell you anything?”

“Because if you don’t, you’ll never know who that text is from.”
Drew raised an eyebrow, as if silently asking
‘do you honestly think arguing with me will get you anywhere?’

Sean considered for a moment, trying to control the irrational spikes of anger that seemed to be coming in bursts, before h
issing through gritted teeth: “f
ine. Top drawer on the left.” Drew
rolled over onto his side with a pained grunt, found said mobile phone, and sat up a minute later
with it clutched in one hand.
“So? Who is it?”

“Ali,
your girlfriend. How cute.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Sean
glared. “What’d she say?”

“That she’s coming round to visit tonight.”

“She’s coming
tonight
?” he repeated frantically.
“But
she can’t!”

“Why not?”

“
Your eyes
.”

“I’ll keep them closed.”

And then suddenly, the fear and the confusion and the shock drained from Sean as fast it had come. What did it matter if Ali found out about this? It would be a good thing. What possible excuse could there be for such a huge change in eye colour? She would have evidence tha
t there was something weird
going on here. Who knew, maybe she’d be able to help
him.
She was smart, smarter than he was anyway, maybe she’d be able to figure something out.

“You won’t g
et away with this, you know,” Sean
said slowly and calmly. Drew blinked in confusion at this sudden change of tone.

“How so?”

“People aren’t stupid. Even if they don’t get it at first, they’ll figure it out eventually. The eyes, the change in personality…”

“And they’re definitely
going to
think that some psycho spirit has taken over your body
. That’s the only logical explanation.” Drew rolled his eyes mockingly.

“Whatever,” Sean scowled. “
Someone will find out,
you’re not
going to
get away with it.”

“And if they do find out, what exactly can they do to stop me?”

“I
don’t know.
But they’ll do something, they’ll work something out.”

The other boy
scoffed. “Sure. Just keep hoping. Maybe you should try sorting your own problems out once in a while, instead of relying on everyone else.” There was a strange edge of bitterness in his voice, or maybe it was nostalgia, Sean couldn’t tell. He deliberated replying for a moment, but then thought better of it. He didn’t want another argument now. Things were bad enough as they were. So instead he sighed, and waited.

Sean’s mother
came up later on to check on who she
thought to be her son. Drew kept
his eyes shut for the whole time and
feign
ed
sleep
. This time, Sean didn’t
even bother trying to make his mother see him. She had never p
roperly seen him when he had
a body, so why would she now?
She was a simple woman who meant well,
but never quite got the whole ‘supportive parenting’ thing right.

Sean co
uld tell she was slightly drunk
as soon as the door creaked open and she tottered in, armed with a glass of water in one hand and a plunger in the other. She had started up a regular routine of drinking ever since his fathe
r had left. He wasn’t too bothered
by it anymore though, a
nd at least this time she was still conscious enough to walk over to the bed in the dark relatively well, without stum
bling. She would be leaving in a few hours
for
her night shift. Hopefully the effects of the alcoh
ol would have worn off by then.
She left the glass of water on his bedside table and proceeded to fuss with his covers, straightening them out and ultimately m
aking them even messier in her
inebriated state. Th
en she left, shutting the door
loudly behind her. As soon as she was gone, Drew opened his eyes again and let out an irritated sigh.

“Honestly, the rest of you
r family are just as hopeless as you
.”

Sean did not have the energy to make any more threats or scream insults.
He couldn’t really deny it, anyway.
He
shook his head and lapse
d into familiar silence again.

Ali came half an hour later. Sean heard the front door opening
from downstairs almost as if it were a distant memory or a dream he’d rather forget. He could hear her muffled voice as she conversed in quiet tones with his mother, and then the
stump stump stump
as she climbed the staircase to his room. He was scared, now. His heart pounded wildly in his ears and each footstep sounded twisted and sinister. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted her to know about his current situation anymore. What if she came to the wrong conclusion? What if she did something drastic? He caught a glimpse of
Drew and noticed with some indignation that the boy looked positively bored.
B
efore he could say anything about this, the footsteps stopped and the door creaked open.

“Sean? Are you awake?” s
he
asked timidly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. It was dark, the only light slithering in from the window in
silver trickles
. She went to switch on a light, but paused and decided against it.

“Yeah, I’m awake. You can sit down if you want.”

She obliged, drawing up a chair beside the bed
.
Sean felt a
sudden
sense of relief at seeing her. Every other time she had visited he must have been unconscious. The last memory he had of the girl was their argument on the school bus. He remembered feeling guilty about being so harsh on her.

“So, how are you feeling?”
s
he asked.

“Better, I guess.
” Drew replied.

Sean wanted nothing more than to tell her that he was behind her, that the person in the bed was not him. He wanted her to see him. “Ali?” he asked quietly, a part of him hoping desperately that she would be different from Hayden and
his
mother. “Can’t you hear me?” He already knew the answer was a ‘no’. But even so, he reached out tentatively and tried to touch her shoulder. His
fingers slipped right through.
From the bed, he could see the minute twitch of Drew’s lips int
o an upward smirk
.

“Are you sure? You don’t look well, Sean.
I’ve got
some aspirin
if you want.”