Changeling

by Steve Feasey

  ‘I know that you’re awake,’ she said eventually, ‘so why don’t you stop pretending and be nice?’

  ‘Sod off,’ came the gruff reply.

  ‘You were very difficult to track down. My father would have come to visit you himself, but you know how he hates daylight meetings. He said that if you weren’t agreeable … if you were rude, he’d be happy to pay you a visit in person … at night … alone.’

  The Ashnon slowly sat up, sucking its teeth and squinting up at the girl. It rubbed a hand through its grimy hair. ‘What does he want this time?’

  ‘A favour.’

  ‘I don’t do favours. Not even for the likes of Lucien Charron. He knows that. And you might want to remind him that the last time I worked for him, it nearly cost me my life. “It’s a simple job,” he told me. “You’ll only need to be the Prime Minister for one day, no more.”’ The Ashnon reached down beside the bench and grabbed a brown paper bag containing a bottle of something. Twisting the lid off, it swigged greedily before setting it back on the ground. ‘He knew damn well that that lunatic was going to take a shot at the PM that day. The bullet missed me by inches!’

  ‘It was a human bullet, fired by a human hand. You wouldn’t have died.’

  ‘That’s easy for you to say, but walking around with a five-inch exit wound in your face for a week or so is no picnic, I can tell you.’

  ‘My father says that you’ll like this job. He says that the reward at the end of it will make you glad to take it.’

  The Ashnon studied her. They were among the rarest demons of the Netherworld, and this was the first time that she had met one. At least she assumed it was. The Ashnon were unique amongst nether-creatures for being able to perfectly replicate any human being. They did this without harming the human, and having assumed the human disguise, became invisible to other nether-creatures. Because of this unique ability they were able to charge immense fees to double for heads of state, royalty and VIPs who might be in danger of assassination or kidnap. And that was the reason why Alexa had been sent here today.

  ‘You said something about a reward?’

  ‘Where is he?’Alexa asked, making the demon wait.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘The homeless person you’re pretending to be. Where is he?’

  ‘At a place that I’ve set up in the Netherworld. As far as he’s concerned, he’s staying at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York as my guest. All expenses paid. He’ll look out of the window of the penthouse apartment and see the New York skyline – taxis, skyscrapers, American delis selling hot salt beef – the whole shooting match. All he’s got to do is stick to his side of the bargain, not leave the building for a week, and he gets the holiday of a lifetime. Every kind of food and drink he could imagine brought to him by room service; movies on demand; a personal shopper who visits him and then arranges for the clothes to be delivered; a personal trainer to help him out at the gym. Whatever he wants.’

  Alexa frowned, considering what the demon had just said. ‘But none of it is real.’

  ‘Reality’s subjective. When the guy is sitting on this bench drunk out of his brain and seeing pink elephants, believe me, to him they’re real.’

  Alexa turned her head to look around at the people lying on the grass enjoying one of the rare sunny days of this summer.

  She turned back to study the figure in front of her, telling herself to remember that it was indeed a demon, but her brain was having difficulty in ratifying the optical signals being sent to it – so perfect was the disguise. She was used to looking through the human mantle that demons living in the human realm wore, and seeing the true creature beneath, but the thing in front of her just looked … human. ‘And what do you get out of this deal?’ she asked.

  ‘Are you kidding?’ The creature looked up at her, screwing up its eyes and grinning. It looked down at its body. ‘I get all this. Unlimited use of a body. I get to experience what it is to be alive.’

  Alexa shook her head in confusion. ‘I thought you said—’

  ‘In my demon form, I don’t get to experience anything. We Ashnon are … inert. We’re not physical beings – we’re more a … coalescence of energy. We’ve no sense of taste or smell. We don’t feel the cold or the heat. We don’t experience illness or disease or pain. We don’t really experience happiness or sadness. We are nonentities. Lifeless. Dull as dishwater.’ The face that looked back at her now was a parody of sadness. ‘In this body I get everything. The homeless are ideal for us – nobody cares what they do as long as they leave them alone. In this body I can sing, dance, shout, howl like a loon. And nobody bats an eye. I can appear to be drunk out of my mind, laugh like a maniac or cry myself senseless, and the people will walk on past me as if I didn’t exist. Perfect.’

  ‘If your demon form isn’t physical, how do you make contact with future … customers?’

  The demon studied her, climbing up off the bench and approaching her on unsteady legs. ‘We use intermediaries – people in our employ here in the human realm. Sometimes we might cook up a spiritual visitation – an angel or something like that. You know, a moment of epiphany. That worked for this guy,’ he said, gesturing down towards the body it was currently inhabiting. Noticing her look of disapproval, the Ashnon put his hands up, his face taking on a serious look. ‘We’re not allowed to harm our hosts in any way, and we’re not allowed to outstay our welcome. The body that we reproduce is the one they get back, not the mangled old wreck that they left this realm in. It’s like taking your old battered car into a dealer, waiting a week or so, and receiving a brand new shiny one in return. They’re free of any disease that they may have had – and let me tell you in this guy’s case, there was a whole lot of bad stuff. That’s the deal. They give up their place here in the human realm for an agreed length of time, and when they come back it’s in a new, pristine, perfect body.’

  ‘But you’re drinking. You’re—’

  ‘It’s water.’ The Ashnon nodded towards the bottle contained in the brown paper bag by the bench. ‘You can check it if you like. It’s just an act. People expect drunks to act out of turn, so I can do whatever my heart desires. Philip Warton – that’s my, sorry his, name – is residing in a place that I have created for him in the Netherworld. Perfectly safe. Like I say, as far as he’s concerned, he’s living a life of luxury. I get to be him for a week. When the time is up, he comes back to a fresh start. No liver disease, no cancer, no irritable bowel syndrome and no halitosis. It seems like a great deal to me.’

  A thought occurred to Alexa, ‘What happens to the old body?’ she asked.

  ‘That gets left behind in the Netherworld.’

  ‘That’s it?’

  The Ashnon shuffled its feet uncomfortably. ‘Best not to ask. Let’s just say that the old body is … recycled.’

  Alexa raised an eyebrow and waited.

  The demon held two hands up in a defensive gesture. ‘Hey, I have to employ staff. They want rewarding for the work they do.’ It puffed out its cheeks and shook its head. ‘Like I said, it’s best not to ask.’

  ‘What happens if he,’ she nodded towards the human body in front of her, ‘leaves the hotel?’

  ‘Then he’s screwed. Eternal damnation and all that jazz.’ The demon batted the question away.

  ‘What happens if you don’t want to give the body back? If you decide that you’re having too good a time.’

  The demon squinted at her and the smile dropped from its face. ‘Something a whole lot worse than eternal damnation for me. Like I said, it’s a deal – a binding agreement that must be kept by both parties. There’s no wriggle room, no cheap tricks. It’s a cast-iron, nostrings-attached contract.’

  ‘It’s a hell of a risk – on his behalf.’

  ‘So’s pumping cheap booze into your liver for years and expecting to see forty-one.’

  ‘Amazing,’Alexa said under her breath.

  ‘Yes, I am.’

  Alexa smiled and ruefully shook her head.


  ‘So what’s this reward?’ the Ashnon asked, scratching at its rear.

  ‘Huh?’

  The demon looked at her as if she were an imbecile. ‘The reward that your father believes will make me jump at this job?’

  ‘Oh, he said to tell you that we have a Necrotroph on the loose, and it’s yours if you want it.’ She let the revelation go casually, the way that her father had told her to.

  The down-and-out stared at her with an intensity and clarity that took her by surprise, and for the first time Alexa thought that she could detect, hidden deep within those eyes, the slightest hint of the thing that was really inside the human body in front of her.

  ‘A Necro?’ it said slowly, the hatred in its voice clear to hear. ‘It’s been a long, long time since I’ve come across one of those. Perhaps a hundred years or so.’ It nodded its head and looked at the ground between its feet. When it spoke again, it was in a voice so low that Alexa had to strain to hear. ‘Scum. Vile scum. They give Deeps a bad name – a very bad name.’

  Alexa knew that demons came in two main forms: Indies and Deeps. The Indies were capable of visiting the human realm in disguise, by adopting a human mantle that hid their true form. Deeps, like the Ashnon and Necrotrophs, could only exist in this realm via the acquisition of a human host.

  The demon spat on the ground. ‘We Ashnon are sworn to kill each and every Necrotroph that we discover – your father knows that. He also knows that we are the only way to kill one without the loss of more human life.’ It looked at her, a sinister smile forming on its lips. ‘Lucien Charron always did know how to put together a good deal – he should have been an Ashnon.’ The demon straightened up then, abandoning the hunched and stooped posture that it had maintained throughout their meeting. It moved its head from side to side, loosening the knots that had formed. It was clear that the creature had made up its mind. ‘Tell your father that I’m in. I’ll need his help to find a new body to use – something that I can slip into for a while. This one’s time is nearly up.’

  Alexa nodded.

  ‘Oh, and when you see him, tell him I said thanks.’ He looked down at the bench, sighed, and, turning away from her, started to rearrange the papers and cardboard on the wooden surface. She couldn’t catch what he was mumbling to himself, but she distinctly caught the words ‘Necrotroph’ and ‘death’ in there somewhere.

  10

  Philippa woke up screaming. She sat up in bed and stared about her at the gloom, unsure of her surroundings. Alexa was up and across the room in an instant, kneeling beside her, holding her hand and talking to her in a soft voice that assured her that she was in no danger.

  There was a soft knock on the door. ‘It’s all right,’Alexa called out to whoever was on the other side. ‘We’re fine. Just a nightmare.’

  She returned her attention to Philippa, talking to her in hushed tones until her breathing had returned to normal.

  It seemed to Philippa that the other girl’s voice was directly inside her mind, pushing back at the panic that had threatened to overcome her so completely. She was certain that this was some kind of magic, and while this should have unsettled her, she welcomed the calm that it afforded her in those first few waking moments.

  Eventually, satisfied that she was over the worst of her nightmare, Alexa leaned forward and switched on the bedside lamp, flooding the room with its soft, yellow light. She sat on the bed and looked down at Philippa, waiting.

  ‘I saw it,’ Philippa said eventually, her eyes widening at the memory. ‘I saw the demon that was inside me. The one that was inside my father … I saw it.’

  ‘When you say you saw it …’

  ‘It’s transferred. Moved from one host to another. I felt it move between the people.’ She looked at Alexa, her face full of confusion and doubt.

  ‘Do you know who the new host is?’

  ‘No,’ Philippa said, shaking her head in the other girl’s direction. ‘It’s difficult to describe, but I’ve felt this before … when I was in the hospital. I woke up screaming. I tried to explain to the nurses what had happened. They just looked at me as if I was mad.’

  ‘You’re not mad. You have to try and be strong, Philippa. You can get through this.’ Alexa stood up and moved towards the door.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘I thought that I’d go and speak to my father. Let him know what has happened, and that you’re OK.’

  ‘Don’t go.’

  ‘He’ll want to know.’

  ‘It’s awfully late. Shouldn’t you wait until the morning?’

  ‘I think you’ll find that Lucien is up, and not just because of your scream. The night time is the one time you can be certain that he’ll be around. It’s the rest of the time that he’s harder to find.’

  Philippa nodded, trying to return the other girl’s smile.

  Despite what she had just said, Alexa was far from certain of being able to find her father in the apartment. Unbeknownst to any of them he had left the previous night. And when she had gone into his office this morning she had been greeted by a huge bloodstain on the carpet. She had shouted out for To m, the panic rising in her at the sight of the orange-brown circle of dried blood. As Tom arrived, she spotted the note that her father had left on the desktop:

  Please excuse the unsightly mess. I had to leave in a hurry, but I am in no danger.

  I will be back shortly. L.

  Alexa looked back at Philippa. Taking her hand off the door handle, she crossed the room and went to sit on the bed again. The terror that Philippa had experienced moments ago was writ large on her features, and Alexa had to remind herself what the girl had already gone through. ‘I’ll stay here with you for a while longer if you like, so that you can get back off to sleep.’

  Philippa shook her head, and issued a short snort through her nostrils. ‘Sleep? I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep again tonight.’

  ‘Would you like to talk about it? It might help,’ Alexa said.

  Philippa closed her eyes. ‘It’s terrible,’ she said. ‘I start to feel it as it prepares to move from one person to the next. It’s as if it’s me that is going to possess someone. I can sense the demon’s feelings, its anxiety as to how the transfer will go – it’s much more wary now, and feels it must stay in the host’s body longer than it would like to before shifting to a new one. It doesn’t want to make the same mistake that it did with my father.’

  ‘Can you feel it now?’

  ‘No,’ she said, and noticing the disappointment on the other girl’s face added, ‘I’m sorry.’

  Alexa shook her head. She stared at Philippa, scanning her features, the seed of a plan beginning to take shape. ‘And you say that you have no idea who the new host is?’

  ‘No.’

  There was a long pause. ‘Philippa, do you trust me?’

  It was a big question. Alexa sat perfectly still, hoping that the friendship that had started to form between the two of them was sufficiently strong for Philippa to believe that Alexa posed no threat to her safety in any way. Eventually the girl nodded. ‘Yes, Alexa, I think I do.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Alexa said. She reached over and took the other girl’s hand. ‘I’d like to try something. It involves magic, but I need your permission to try it.’ She smiled, hoping to mask the doubt and fear that she really felt about what she was proposing to do. She knew that she ought to consult with her father before trying out a spell as big as this, and a part of her wished that Trey were here. Trey with his can-do attitude would simply shrug his shoulders and tell her to go for it – to believe in herself. Because deep inside, she knew that she could do this. True, she’d never tried anything like this before, but her powers – along with her confidence in them – were growing, and the moment felt right.

  ‘Will this thing that you want to try help us to find my father’s killer?’ Philippa asked, an edge in her voice now. The two girls were of the same age, and she hated to think of how weak and pathetic she must seem to
Alexa. She took a breath. ‘If so, I think we should try it.’

  Alexa nodded, her expression becoming serious and intense. A small frown worried her brow, and she turned her attention to the floor between her feet, her lips moving, whispering words in a strange language that Philippa could not make out.

  Philippa felt an odd rolling sensation, like a boat yawing into a particularly high wave. She closed her eyes momentarily, swallowing to stave off the nausea that the sensation had caused in her. When she opened them again she was standing in the centre of a large room. It was empty except for a small white table in front of her. Everything in the room was brilliant white. There were no windows, but the walls and ceiling seemed to give off their own light that washed over her and made her feel safer than she had in a long time. She looked down to see that she too was dressed from head to toe in white, and when she raised her head again she was not surprised to see Alexa standing on the other side of the table from her. The white suit and shirt that the other girl was wearing also gave off that same strange glow and it occurred to Philippa that she looked like some kind of angel.

  Alexa looked towards the table and motioned with her head at something on its surface. Philippa glanced down and saw a red hand mirror. It was face down on the table, the bright colour of it at complete odds with the monochrome surroundings. Blood in the snow, she thought. A cold shudder ran right through her, and she quickly turned her head away, not wanting to look at the thing.

  When she looked back again, Alexa was holding the mirror, her arm fully extended towards her. She wanted to ask her about what was happening, but she somehow knew that both she and Alexa were incapable of speech in this place. Alexa nodded again, as if urging her to take the thing from her.