Soul Protector (3 page)

“Right, stop whatever you’re
doing, Gracie. These are more important. I need them by
lunchtime.”

I gritted my teeth and
nodded.

She gave me a sickly smile,
turned on her heel and disappeared back into her office.

I wasn’t exactly enjoying my
job at Elevate ‘
the magazine to elevate your small
business.’
My previous supervisor, Mel, had been lovely. But a
couple of months before, like so many others, she’d migrated to a
more glamorous magazine. Camille had just moved down to London from
Leicester and fancied working in the magazine trade. Conveniently,
she was the Editor’s niece, and hey presto, Uncle Donald gave her
the job.

Apart from the fact I had
utilities to pay, the main reason I could stomach working for
Camille was that a position had come up in-house as a writer. And I
loved writing articles. I often got asked to do a feature if it was
a lean month, and some of the official writers asked me to polish
their articles before they submitted them. In order to get the
promotion, all I had to do was keep my head down and work hard.
D-Day was coming…

I finished the work Camille had
thrust on me, and then tried working through lunch to catch up with
the article I should have done earlier, but it wasn’t happening. I
was again consumed by the events of the previous evening. And it
was like I had two memories. One was from being Lydia - of waking
up with
MyPhil
trying to get me to drink the water, and the
absolute shock of finding myself in her body. But I also had
another memory from my own point of view. I remembered seeing Lydia
fall to the floor and feeling concerned about her, but definitely
not under the impression that any body-switching had taken
place.

I heard a deep grumble as
someone nearby cleared their throat. I looked up to see Arthur, the
guy I sat next to, peering over the top of his privacy board. I
loved Arthur to bits. He had snowy white hair that stuck out in
wisps above his ears, and glasses that sat perched on the end of
his nose. He probably should’ve retired years ago, but I was glad
he hadn’t.

“Heavy night last night, Gracie
love?” he asked, smiling at me.

I knew what he was insinuating.
“I
am
working Arthur, I’m thinking through my research.”

“Ahh, that’s why you looked
miles away then, I thought maybe you had something on your
mind.”

“No, no,” I said trying to
shake off any hint of anxiety. “I’m fine.”

“That’s good. I was going to
suggest tackling whatever the distraction was first, so you’d be
able to concentrate on your article. Won’t be necessary though,” he
said, winking.

Did I mention Arthur was
incredibly perceptive? He was right of course. I knew if I didn’t
confront this thing head on, I was going to drive myself crazy.

I tried to focus on a way
forward. The only other person who’d been involved was Lydia, so it
was obvious I had to speak to her again. There must have been
something unusual she remembered. It didn’t matter how small or
insignificant, I just had to find out if there was anything at
all.

I turned to my PC and tapped
out a quick email to see if she was going to be home that evening.
A message pinged back a few minutes later to say her BMW was at the
garage and
MyPhil
was away on business, so she’d love some
company. She’d added the code for her secure parking spot, so I
scribbled it down on a Post-it and stuck it in my bag. As much as I
hated the drive to Greenwich, it was still better than taking the
tube.

The rest of the working day I
achieved the square root of zero. I still had the ‘woman in work’
feature to finish, and in order to get the promotion I knew I had
to make a good job of it. I popped my research notes in my bag and
resigned myself to finishing it off at home before coming in early
the next day to print it off - my punishment for wasting time. At
five-thirty on the dot I switched off my computer and tore out of
the office.

~

Exactly thirty-five minutes and
one argument with a security guard later, I pressed the buzzer at
Lydia and MyPhil’s loft apartment building. It was in a converted
warehouse, and while it may have only been a few miles away from my
flat in Crystal Palace, with its exposed brickwork and steel beams,
it was worlds away in price and style.

Lydia’s face appeared on the
video screen in front of me, “Come on up, Gracie,” she chirped,
buzzing me in.

When I came out of the lift,
Lydia was waiting with the door open. Her hair was tied in a loose
knot and she was wearing cream sweat pants, a long cream cardigan
and slouchy beige boots. She looked stunning. Only Lydia could do
couch-potato chic that well.

“Green tea or cappuccino?” she
asked, leading me through into the pristine purple and shiny steel
kitchen. I pulled out a stool at the granite work surface. “I’d
love a cappuccino, please.”

I heaved myself onto the seat,
and twisted it round to look through the large balcony windows.
Across the river, the lights of Canary Wharf twinkled against the
backdrop of early evening sky.

“Cookie?” Lydia asked, emptying
a packet from the bakery up the street and taking a chocolate chip
one herself.
Where does she put it?

“I’m supposed to be on a diet,
but why not?” I shrugged and helped myself to one with plenty of
chunks.

Lydia fixed our drinks, and
pulled out a stool next to me. I took a good look at her, studying
her expression. Nothing seemed out of place.

“Lydia,” I said in a low voice.
“On Saturday night,
before
you fainted, did anything weird
happen to you?”

“Weird. Like what?”

“Well, did you have��sort of… an
out of body experience?”

Her eyebrows shot up, and she
started to laugh. “It was amazing that my Phil proposed,” she said,
giggling, “But I wouldn’t call it an out of body experience.”

“So, apart from fainting,” I
carried on, “nothing strange happened… at all?”

“Gracie, what
are
you
going on about?” The smile faded from her lips, and the next words
came out snippy. “Saturday night was fab. I had a little too much
wine, a little too much excitement, and I fainted. It happens. I
wish everyone would just stop going on about it.”

“Okay, I’m sorry.” I sagged. “I
won’t mention it anymore.”

“Good.”

Lydia took a sip of her drink,
and her face brightened again.

“Did I tell you my Phil is
taking me to Brighton at the weekend? I’ve got a day off tomorrow
so I’m going clothes shopping for it. I can’t wait. I’ve got my eye
on a new handbag...”

As she spoke, I sat quietly
sipping my cappuccino, occasionally wiping froth from my upper lip.
I was only half-listening though, my mind was elsewhere searching
for other options.
Should I come clean and tell her I was in her
body the other night?
No, absolutely not
. I could hardly
bear to imagine the conversation in my head, let alone say it out
loud. My stomach muscles tightened as I thought how it would go.
Something like, ‘
Hey Lydia, you know when you passed out on
Saturday night? Well the reason for that was because it was me
controlling your body, and I fainted from the shock of it all.
Don’t worry though; I managed to switch back again, so no harm
done
.” It was just too ridiculous for words.

As she carried on, unaware I
wasn’t really listening, an idea struck me. If I could make it
happen again, I would know for sure if I was right, whether it
definitely
had
happened. The more I thought about it, the
more I knew I had to try.
But how did it work?
I closed my
eyes for a moment and tried to visualise myself crossing into
Lydia’s body.

Lydia raised her voice and cut
through my thoughts, “Gracie, are you listening to me?”

“What? Oh yes. Sorry, Lyd,
carry on.”

I kept my eyes open this time,
as I imagined my inner self transferring to her body. I held my
breath and tensed every muscle in my body. Nothing happened, so I
drew in a deep breath, and tried again.

Several attempts later, it was
obvious it wasn’t working. I kept my eyes focussed on Lydia and
drained the last of my cappuccino. I had to work out how it
happened before. I thought back to Saturday night, to the exact
moment I switched, and then later, to the switch-back. My heart
beat faster as something clicked in my mind.

“I just remembered, I have to
go,” I announced, interrupting her mid-sentence.

She stopped talking and stuck
her bottom lip out in exaggerated disappointment.

“Sorry Lyd, it’s a feature for
work and I've got to hand it in by tomorrow morning.” I hopped off
my stool. “Thanks for the coffee.”

“Oh, fine then. Will I see you
soon?”

“Of course. Sorry for rushing
out on you.”

I’d remembered exactly what
happened on Saturday night and I had to act before I lost my nerve.
I leaned into Lydia, and hugged her tight. I closed my eyes and
wished with all my heart that I could switch into her body.

A few strange moments passed,
and I had to hold onto the work-surface to steady myself. Then,
hardly daring to open my eyes, I found myself in the familiar
position of looking at my own face.

~~~

CHAPTER 3

.

Second Switch

.

Yes! Switching is real
.
I was relieved the world had gone crazy, and not me. I paused to
consider how I’d weathered. My legs felt a bit wobbly and I was
breathless, like I’d just come off a rollercoaster or something,
but apart from that, I was okay. I wondered if it was because I’d
been expecting it that time.

‘Gracie’ returned my gaze with
one eyebrow raised.

I knew what she was waiting
for, and I really wanted to give her confirmation, but I was scared
to say the words out loud. Last time Lydia hadn’t remembered me
being inside her head, only the actions.

I wished I’d thought of a
signal beforehand to confirm the swap had happened. There was
nothing I could do, even if I got the message across without Lydia
realising, I didn’t know if she would think rationally, or start
jumping around the room like a mad woman. That, Lydia
would
remember.

‘Gracie’ heaved a sigh, and a
resigned expression settled on her face. I couldn’t take my eyes
off her. It was all so weird. Usually, when I looked at myself, my
reflection imitated my movements precisely. But this version was
independent. She looked different from my usual reflection as well.
I noticed the little scar on my cheekbone was the other side to
where I usually saw it, and one of my eyes looked fractionally
higher than the other. But this was my true self, how my friends
and family saw me as opposed to the mirror image I was used to
seeing.

“Better crack on with this
report then,” she said in a flat tone, making her way towards the
door.

I hesitated, wondering whether
I should take the opportunity to hug her again and switch back, but
I quickly decided the main crime was switching in the first place,
not the length of time I stayed. I had to try and find out
something,
anything
, to make sense of the whole body-hopping
drama.

I focussed on my next move and
became aware of ringing in my ears again. It sounded like
disjointed whispering rushing around against a background of white
noise. I put a hand up to press against my ear, and screwing my
eyes tight, I tried to make it go away. It was only when I opened
my eyes that the volume decreased.

‘Gracie’ was watching me and
she narrowed her eyes, trying to read my expression. She looked
like she was about to say something. I flashed a smile, hoping to
disarm her and swiftly leant across, opening the door to let her
out.

When I was on my own in Lydia’s
apartment, the euphoria faded. I knew I’d violated Lydia by
switching into her body and it made me feel anxious. I tried to
shrug off the bad feeling as I wandered into her living room and
plonked myself down on the leather sofa. I pressed my fingertips
together in a prayer like pose, and came to the conclusion I would
give myself one hour to fathom out what was going on, and if I was
none the wiser after that, I would go home and switch back
regardless.

The leather felt cold beneath
me. I leant behind and pulled the fake zebra-skin throw off the
back of the couch and tucked it around me. It smelt of Lydia’s
vanilla perfume.

For the next hour or so, I sat
absent-mindedly picking nail varnish off Lydia’s perfectly
manicured nails, while my thoughts went round in circles. I had
established I wasn’t going mad, and I had worked out
how
to
switch into other people’s bodies, but what I couldn’t understand
was
why
.
What
was the point of it all?
I
wondered if it was completely random, some kind of weird phenomenon
that I would never truly understand.

I toyed with the idea of
telling someone.
But what then
? They’d want me to prove it,
and I didn’t know if that was even possible. And if I was able to
prove it, would I be carted away to some secret Government location
and subjected to all kinds of invasive tests?

The whole time I was thinking,
I had to compete with the funny sounds in my ears. I remembered
Kerry’s granddad used to complain about something similar. He
called it tinnitus. It was strange Lydia never mentioned she
suffered from it as well. Well, she had my sympathy, it was
exhausting.

~

Lydia’s silver tabby, Chloe,
extended her claws through the throw and buried them into my
thigh.

Disorientated, my eyes shot
open and I was surprised to see daylight streaming in through the
horizontal blinds. The fog cleared from my mind and I remembered
why I was on Lydia’s sofa. My heart raced.