1 Inhabited

Darrella woke up screaming. With her body rigid, she lay in bed and blinked. Looking around the dimly bit room, she recognized nothing and began to panic.

Lement struggled to gain control over Darrella's body but found himself completely incapable of enforcing his will on the body that he'd had full control over until just moments ago. All he could do was attempt to communicate with the now conscious Darrella, but she didn't seem to be listening.

Drawing rapid breaths, Darrella sat up in an unfamiliar bed and threw off the covers. She wore an unfamiliar nightgown. Blinking, she examined the room lit with a dimly glowing blue orb that floated in one corner of the room. She noticed a chair tucked under a desk covered with books and papers. Shelves lined the walls overstuffed with more books. She heard a voice, faint at first and growing louder, calling her.

"What? Who's there?"

"Darrella please calm down and listen."

"Who are you, and how come I can hear you but not see you?" Darrella swiveled her head left and right, looking up and down.

"I'm the wizard Lement, and my consciousness is in your body."

"What? How?" Momentarily shocked, Darrella paused and hunched her shoulders, listening more intently.

"Right. Well, I'm sorry to tell you this, but you died. I bought your body and transferred my mind into it. I've been using it for a while now. Quite honestly, I'm as stunned as you are that you've awoken, so to speak, and literally come back from the dead."

"What! I'm dead! How? How long?"

"You were strangled by a young man named Harrington Billmore three months ago. No worries though. He was tried, found guilty, and hanged about six weeks ago."

"Why are you in my body?

"I was poisoned and dying. I needed to find a body to transfer my consciousness into, and your body was available and compatible. We were able to repair the relatively minor damage done by the strangulation and move my mind into your body. Unfortunately, you'd already passed on. There was no way to save you. Trust me Darrella, I wouldn't have taken advantage of you if there was any possibility of you surviving."

Darrella frowned, "But I'm alive now, right? I'll need you to leave as soon as possible. How long before you can find another compatible body to inhabit?"

"I'm sorry Darrella, but in order transfer my mind from my original body, I had to essentially die first. To do the same again, this body would have to die as well. There's no way for me to leave without you dying."

"No. That's not acceptable. There must be a way for you to leave. Also, who are you again?"

"The wizard Lement. Perhaps you've heard of me?"

Darrella furrowed her brow, thinking, "I don't recall the name."

"I'm the king's court wizard."

"You're _that_ Lement?"

"So, you have heard of me! Yes, that's me. The great Lement."

"You may be great, but you still need to leave my body. This was my body first, and I won't have you sharing it with me. Wait. Weren't you an old man?"

"I wouldn't say I was all that old, but yes, I was a man."

"A man is in my body! Ugh! Have you seen me naked?"

"You realize what you're asking right? I've inhabited your body for three months. What do you think?"

Darrella stood up from the bed and stumbled around the unfamiliar room, barking her shin against an end table and hopping on one foot as she held the other leg in her hands.

"No, no, no, no, no. You can't stay," Darrella paused in her ambling about the foreign room and put her other foot down. She grabbed her hair, handfuls of hair on both sides of her head. "My parents sold my body to you?"

"Well, they didn't actually want to sell me your body, but they had no choice. The king made them; you see."

Darrella let go of her hair and put her hands on her hips, "I'm getting dressed and leaving. Where are my clothes? And, don't look. I won't be having you see me undressed again."

"Honey, I see what you see and feel what you feel. I can't help it. In fact, I felt you bang your shin against my nightstand just now, and I have to tell you that wasn't pleasant."

Furrowing her brows again, with Lament's verbal instructions, Darrella found the closet and put on a blue chiffon dress. Pausing to admire the material she said, "You have nice things, don't you?"

"Well, I am the king's court wizard. I had to get a completely new wardrobe when I took over your body, so I splurged a little. Like it?"

"I'm keeping this dress as part of your rent payment when you finally leave me. I've not given up hope yet."

Lement gave a mental shrug. That was the only kind of shrugging he could perform at the moment. He was getting a tad tired of Darrella's obstinance, "We'll see." He knew she wouldn't be satisfied until she realized she couldn't get rid of him without dying. She'd have to learn this fact over time.

Leaving the room, Darrella stared down one direction of an unfamiliar hall and then down the other direction. "Which way?"

"You want to leave?"

"Yes of course. I'm going home."

"You'll need money for the taxi. Grab that black purse on the other end table."

Two people, in one body, left the palace, waving at the guards Darrella met along the way. "You certainly seem to know a lot of people at the palace," she noted.

"Well, I've been the court wizard for over 30 years, and I seem to have gotten more popular with the male guards since inhabiting your body."

"I'll bet," Darrella wasn't too thrilled to hear that some creepy old man was flirting with the guards with her body. She resolved not to return to the palace if possible.

Lement knew what Darrella was thinking but didn't say anything. There really wasn't much he could do about her attitude, and he felt that he had a pretty good idea what would happen when she confronted her family. The experience wasn't going to be pleasant.

Arriving in front of Darrella's family's mansion, she exited the steam powered cab and paid the driver three silver obols. Straightening her dress, she approached the gate. She entered the lock code and strode through the gate's now open entryway, along the path, and to the front door.

She rang the bell and waited. Her family's butler, Franco, answered the door. Eyes widening, he stuttered, "H…how may I help you?"

"Franco, I'm back. I don't know what happened, but I'm back in my body. I'm coming home," said Darrella as she attempted to step through the doorway and into the front hall.

Franco's eyes widened for a moment. Then, he furrowed his brows. In a practiced, smooth and quick motion, Franco raised his arm and blocked Darrella's attempt to invade his territory, pushing her back outside.

Darrella stumbled back and put her hands on her hips, "What are you doing Franco? I'm trying to come home!"

"I'm sorry sir, but you're not welcome here. I don't know what kind of game you're trying to play, but please leave before I get angry. I might do something we'd both regret."

"No, no, no, Franco. You don't understand. I've come back from the dead. I'm back in my body. Isn't that great? Let me in, please."

"Sir, we both know that dead is dead. You're playing a cruel game, and neither the master nor the missus are able to even think about you let alone see you," Franco raised both arms chest level, elbows bent, ready to push Darrella even harder when someone called from behind him.

"Who is it Franco?"

Peeking from behind Franco was a face Darrella knew well. "Mother, I'm back," she called out, eyes widening and teeth flashing a brilliant smile.

The blood visibly drained from Darrella's mother's face as it turned white. She dropped toward the ground and Franco turned in a flash, catching her, "I'm sorry madam, I tried to turn him away before you saw him."

Following behind her mother, Darrella's father and younger brother approached the door. Seeing Darrella standing just outside their doorway, Darrella's father's face reddened and his eyebrows lowered. He yelled, "What do you think you're doing? Leave now! Just leave!"

"Father, I'm back," Darrella's face scrunched, eyes tearing.

"Franco, close the door," said her father. The last thing Darrella saw of her family was her younger brother's face with an expression showing both anger and disappointment.

Darrella raced to the door and banged on it with both fists, tears screaming down her face as she screamed, "I'm your daughter! Let me in!"

Pounding on the door for a few minutes with no response from the inside, Darrella finally stopped, sliding down the door to sit, weeping.

"Your family didn't want to sell your body to me. The king forced them. You were dead for three days before we got your body and repaired the damage. "

Darrella hiccupped and sobbed, interrupting Lement's monologue. He continued, "They were very, very upset with your death and even more upset with the way we handled prying your body from their control. I'm afraid there's a bit of bad blood between us along with their intense grief. I don't think we can expect them to take you back. I'm so sorry, Darrella."

Standing with a slight stumble, Darrella walked, in a slight daze, back down the pathway leading toward the gate. Exiting the estate grounds, she picked a random direction and began to amble along the sidewalk.

Lement remained silent. He felt there was nothing he could say to make things better.

Feeling a sharp pain in the back of her head, everything went black.