#m2mpossession

But there’s a limit. I learned that the hard way. Apparently, the limit to transferring into someone was around eight to ten. Eight if it was by force, ten if it’s mostly with consent which makes it easier and faster to slip inside. Past that, the person’s mind just breaks. And they go into a coma, never to wake up again.

Unless I stay in their body. At that point, they’ll be empty husks, as if they were just vessels with memories and everything in them, breathing, but empty and lifeless. It doesn’t matter with the duration, but I’ve found that the longer I stay inside someone, the easier it is to break them. I knew this because I broke four people unintentionally from school, and only one on purpose. That’s why I only use it when necessary.

And Liam is already on his ninth.

He’s already starting to show symptoms of overtransference, that’s what I call it, where he starts to zone out in the middle of something, and then comes back as if he just woke up. But I’m glad the symptoms have slowed down as of late, it has been five days since last I had to hitch into him so we could escape.

“I...don’t really…” I whisper, remembering the last time I jumped into someone other than Liam last time, it was a boy, and then an old man. The people beat them to death and that was all just to distract them long enough for my body to free Liam who they caught. It was bloody, I couldn’t do anything as I transferred myself into another guy, leaving the two to scream.

And oh god, their screams were horrible.

“Nestor,” Liam tells me, voice suddenly hushing, probably sensing what I felt. “I know you didn’t mean for that to happen, I didn’t expect that either. And I’m sorry for reminding you that.”

I exhaled sharply, releasing the cloth of my pants that I gripped until they were wrinkled.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Liam went quiet, searching for the best response, then he sighs. “Just...just when it’s necessary then.”

“Last time was necessary too.” I reply back after a beat.

“I know, but we weren’t careful.” He reassures me, left hand sliding down from my shoulders to grasp my palm, he squeezed it lightly. “We’re more cautious this time, I promise. You might not even need to do it.”

I nod slowly, and he pats my shoulder.

I know it’s meant to reassure me, but my mind kept racing. I wanted to just give up, let them have me so it would be the end of this. Maybe Liam could even go back to his old life, or start over in the next state without me. He for sure can, he wasn’t the one whose face and videos got spread all over the internet. Like me.

“I think we should go.” I tell Liam, detaching myself from him to grab our bags sitting atop a haystack. “It’s almost morning, the guy that owns this barn might be up soon.”

“Oh, oh yeah sure. Think we can spot a trucker you could take? Just to drive us over the border.” Liam replies, going over my side to take his backpack. I just shrugged, and we went on with what we have planned next once we go over the next state, and hopefully the news hasn’t reached that far. It has only been almost two weeks anyway, but it spread like wildfire, so we still had plans in place to be careful.

All the while, I stared at Liam while he talked, only sneaking a few glances at his eyes once every few seconds, as we climbed down the creaky wooden step to exit the barn. Despite being on the run and our last bath being well over two days ago, Liam is still...well, the best looking guy.

His dark blonde hair looked messy, but at the same time fitting. His bright green eyes were kind, and enticing, I have to be careful not to look at them for long because they look near hypnotic, and especially the corners of his eyes when they crinkle as he smiles. His smile is everything, it looked as if the sun was shining when he did. He was lean, broad shoulders, taller than me. And I have spent a considerable amount of time getting to know what’s underneath all those clothing.

He really didn’t belong here with me on the run. But he decided to stick with me, as much as I tried to tell him not to. I sighed.

“Maybe once we get to Morga—” I replied to Liam, but was met with a tackle, and a bang, the wooden door frame shattering into splinters of wood just as we landed with a hard on the ground. I quickly rolled us over, Liam beneath me, as I turn to face the shooter. It was a middle-aged man, around his forties from what I can see in the low light, huge.

Fortunately, he was looking directly at me and I looked directly into his eyes as he aimed at me. It didn’t take long as he yelled and was about to pull the trigger again, when the familiar sensation of being pulled into him took me, and I found myself looking at Liam’s form draped over my body. My real one.

I stumbled back and covered my mouth, then threw the gun to the side.

“Liam! Are you alright?” I said, running over. Liam tries to scramble away first, pulling my old body with him, until he sees the expressionless face. Then he calms down. 

“Damn, I thought we were gonna die.” He huffs, and takes my hand as I pull him up. My old body stands up, without even needing assistance, and dusts himself off. It seems weird seeing my old self moving about, but the expressionless face is very freaky to me. “That was some quick thinking there.”

“I think we should really go, I think this guy has a—” I tell Liam, and as if summoned, two males around my age came strutting out of their house across the side of the barn. It really was a bad idea to hide here, a stout woman following after them.

“The freak! They got dad!” The taller one says, lanky, as he charges forward with a shotgun. 

“Run!” I tell Liam and my old body, as I run towards my ‘sons’. They point their shotguns at me too, and to not let things escalate to bloody, I looked to the other guy, smaller by height but bigger by frame. I searched through my body’s memories and found his name as Ed.

“Ed! Don’t shoot! It’s me!” Surely enough, Ed looks straight into me, and I jump inside him.

My view shifts, and I find their dad, Eddie, stumble to the ground. Unfortunately, I turned to the side too slow, as the taller guy, Matt, squeezes out two shots in the distance. I hit him with the butt of Ed’s shotgun, knocking him out. 

Then as I was about to run forward, I felt a blow to my stomach.

“Get out of my son, you devil!” He says, starting to punch me in the face. As soon as the first blow makes my cheek numb, I concentrate hard to slip out of this body. I do this a lot, when I go out in different bodies away from mine, so it was fairly easy.

Soon, Eddie’s voice fades out and I feel my surroundings shift.

But instead of running and the wind, I was met with a sharp pain in my leg and right arm, then with Liam’s voice fussing over me, face down on the grass.

“Fuck, what happened..?” I grumbled, trying to raise my head. Then I remembered. Matt was able to shoot twice.

“Nestor? You back in there?” 

Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself up, Liam half-panicking and half trying to help me up. Then I looked back, Matt was stirring, and Eddie was just about finished with beating Ed up. “We have to go…” I say through gritted teeth. Two, I feel two bullets lodged inside me. I look to the foliage and small forest undoubtedly leading to the highway.

“No, I—” Liam said, supporting me as I made us go forward despite the shooting pain all over my body, vision slowly growing hazy. “I don’t know if we’ll make it.”

“You...can try.” I say, almost stumbling forward. Liam catches me, and we both look back. Matt was slowly standing up, Eddie was shaking Ed awake, and they for sure will catch up on us in no time. “Liam...please, go.”

Liam lets out a choked sound and slips his backpack off himself and onto one arm, and in one swift motion, pulls me up on his back. I gasped from the sudden movement, but bit my tongue as he grabbed the duffel bag from me, and ran forward, carrying me.

“I already said I’m not leaving you!”

We just stepped into the trees, when another shot rings in close. We wince, but Liam forged on forward. “Hang on. Let’s hope there’s anyone on the road to help us, when someone stops for us, you can jump.”

And another shot, frighteningly close. I couldn’t even respond anything else beyond grunting at this point, but Liam kept talking. I feel myself slipping away, but I keep pulling myself back up. Liam’s frightened voice is enough to shake me back up. But I want him to stop. I want him to stop worrying. 

I want him to go.

“Where are you freak?” I hear Matt’s voice ring out the forest, far away to spot us, but still there regardless. Liam picked up his pace, but I hear him panting even harder and grunting, his knees almost giving up a couple of times.

“Liam…” I whisper, but he was still going at it and talking, telling me what we’d do in Louisiana, that it was going to be fine. But frankly, all I wanted was for it to be over.

“Liam...please.”

“I think we’re gonna get a trucker, but I’m not choosy. Hopefully it’s an ambulance so we—”

“Liam!” I say, mustering up a lot of my leftover strength. Even in pain, I pulled on his leg, causing us to stumble forward. 

“Ne—”

“It’s no use I’m…” I start, rolling myself off his back and gasping in pain, as I leaned against a tree root. “You need to go, please.

“I told you I’m not going to leave you!” He tells me, turning to face me as tears started spilling down his eyes. I look down to his chin, but my vision was getting even hazier so I might have been looking elsewhere. “You’re gonna make it, I know that, please let me help you…”

“No...I don’t think I can.” I say, taking deep breaths. I feel my eyes start to leak tears too, by just watching Liam crawl to me and beg me to let him carry me back up. Matt’s voice was still far away, but he’ll find us here soon if we don’t move on now. 

But if anyone here needs saving, it’s Liam. He doesn’t deserve any of this, and I want him to go live his life out, not on the run.

“Liam, please.” I say through tears, as he starts sobbing hard, grabbing at my uninjured arm. “Please, leave me here.”

“I can’t! Okay?” He tells me through his tears, enough to get my attention to focus on him. “I need you, Nestor. I can’t..I...I’d rather be on the run with you forever than leave you here.”

That took me aback, distracted from the pain enough, as I see Liam trying to catch his breath. I didn’t know what to do, but I really still needed, and wanted, for him to save himself. I feel myself slipping away fast, so I have to make it quick.

“Liam…” I start. “I’ve liked you since freshman year, why do you think I let you in on this?”

“Nestor please...you’re gonna make it, don’t say goodbye now, come on man.”

“Liam, I need you to...understand me too.” I say, and he stops speaking, but he was still sobbing hard and gripping my hand. Somewhere in the distance, Matt was starting to howl mad. “I care about you...so much that-that I was so happy...that you went with me but…”

“Nestor, please…” He pleads, and I shake my head. 

“You’ve done so much for me already...Liam and…” I add, and he just starts sobbing more. I felt even weaker, so I knew I had to make it even quicker. 

“It...really would mean so much for me if you saved yourself. Please, Liam.”

Liam’s breath hitches at this, and he looks away. Still sobbing, but very subdued. I felt that he just might leave me, so I rest back and feel my breath slowly escaping me. If I just let go now, he’ll be forced to run anyway, which is exactly what I want for him to do.

“Nestor, I’m so sorry…” Liam whispers, moving  to a kneeling position. 

This is it, he’s about to leave. I looked up to him, just to his lips, which were twitching.

“I’m sorry.” He says again, leaning forward. And then he locks his lips with mine into a kiss. Which I didn’t expect. It felt good, and if this is how I’ll go, I accept it.

“I love you.” He says as he pulls away, then he presses his finger against my injured arm.

My eyes open and go wide at this, and when I look over to Liam, he holds my face close to his, our eyes meeting and making contact.

“I love you.”

I feel the rush of jumping and crashing into somewhere familiar, a torrent of memories and feelings, and new sensations hit him as I get pulled inside the recesses of Liam’s mind. I stumbled back, the pain in my arm and leg disappearing, replaced by just soreness on my knees and my eyes stinging.

I gasped, and pulled myself forward. 

In front of me, sat my old body. Motionless, lifeless, the expressionless face looked gaunt.

“No.” was the first word I said. “No, no no no.”

I tried to shake my old body, but it wouldn’t respond. I brought the face up and forced his eyes open, to hopefully jump back there, but it won’t work. Nothing worked.

“What did you do, Liam?” I asked myself, looking down at the blue flannel that Liam wore just moments ago, and I was wearing it now. “Liam, no please...what did you do..?”

I sobbed on the chest of my old body, a wet spot appearing on the red shirt it wore.

Liam knew this. He knew it was the last time I’d be able to jump into him, before he breaks. And he gave his life to me, his body, everything. Everything that could still lead him to live freely and happily, should he have just ran away. But no, he gave it to me.

“You really are so stubborn.”

I hear another gunshot, and Matt yelling again, closer this time.

I risked one more look towards my corpse, then took a deep breath, and sighed. I slung Liam’s—my backpack over my shoulders, and stood up. I wasn’t planning on wasting what Liam gave me. And though it wasn’t the ending I wanted it to be, this is what I have now.

“I know you’re still there!” Matt’s voice rings out, even closer.

I exhaled, looked at the direction of where the sounds of cars and trucks came from, then sprinted towards there.

~