Katie was once again surprised by the fact that James hadn’t lost her number. Her ringtone blared, as she paced her room. James had been having a hard time, sure, but that didn’t justify him cutting her off and pretending like she didn’t exist. Katie deserved better; she wouldn't be his tool that he used and dropped whenever he decided to feel like garbage. Then again, it might be an apology. She’d heard a bit about what had happened with Nick, through the poor guy’s sobs. Maybe through some deep introspection he realised what a selfish ass he was.
“What do you want Jay?” She chastised herself for being weak. Jay’s life was a train wreck that she couldn’t look away from, no matter how hard she tried.
“Hi, is this Katie?” The voice’s pitch and timbre were the same as Jay’s, but it lacked something. There was no self assured cockyness, depressed monotone or panicked crying. They were acting like a stranger.
“Who else would it be? Now, what do you want?”
“I need help.” Jay sounded tired. Like he had exhausted every other options, that kind of hurt. While she didn't appreciate being used, shouldn't she be the first called? She knows the most about solving mysteries and gender stuff and now she's getting jealous over imaginary people.
“Stop being vague. What do you need?”
“Oh, sorry. I haven't talked to anyone but Jay in year. This would be easier face to face.” He was an idiot if he thought he could just come around when it suited him. And tempting her by talking in third person and being cryptic? She wasn't going to fall for it!
“And why do you need to talk to me, Jay?”
"I forgot to introduce myself. I’m not Jay, I’m Melody.” The investigator in her couldn’t resist the claim. If she was getting played, she was going to be so pissed.
“I’ll get my Mum to pick you up.”
----
The girl in front of Katie was odd. She looked like Jay. Her hair, her eyes, her figure. It was all Jay’s, yet somehow her body language, the way she talked and the way she dressed, transformed her into a completely different person. This was the girl behind everything? She seemed so quiet.
“Hi Katie.”
“Come in. We have a lot to talk about.”
Melody followed Katie to her bedroom, all the while marvelling at the things around her. It was frustrating to see. The way her eyes were lighting up and the way she reacted to her name. She was cute; adorable, even.
“It’s really nice to meet you, Katie,” she whispered. What the hell was up with this girl? She was so normal? "I wish it was under better circumstances."
“Nice to meet you too I guess.” She sat down on her bed and patted the space next to her. She couldn't let her mums hear. It was probably too weird for them and this moment was too monumental to be interrupted by them panicking. She was one of the first people to talk to a ghost. It would be awesome to record this, unfortunately this was likely personal.
“Are you sure? I can sit on the floor.”
“I don’t mind. Just sit down.” The girl sat down on the floor obediently. She was so unlike the person she was possessing, which led Katie to wonder. “What happened to Jay, Melody? Where is he?”
“He’s alive. He’s just -- I don’t know how to put this. Asleep? I should clarify, I didn’t want to do this. Je forced me to.” That wasn’t at all suspicious.
“What does that mean? What did he do?”
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is I don’t know what to do, or how to start fixing this situation.” The girl was clearly panicking, which only made her avoidance of the question even more suspicious. Was she lying about something? Katie needed to get to the bottom of it before she started to talk. Jay had been acting weird the last couple of weeks. Did she have something to do with that?
“It does matter, Melody. How did he force you to steal his body?” Katie felt bad accusing the girl in front of her, but it wasn’t like she could ignore the disappearance of her friend. No matter how shitty he was.
“He gave me some options. Please just believe me when I say this was the best one. I’m sorry but I need help,” Melody pleaded.
“What were the other options, Melody?”
“He wanted me to turn him into a girl. He wanted to stop hurting.” The look in Melody’s eyes suggested guilt. That was only one option. Katie needed to know all of them.
“And why didn’t you just say no?” she asked and Melody’s dam broke.
“Because he said he was going to kill himself. Katie, please. Look at this body.” There was barely any muscle or fat on the girl’s bones. Her eyes were sunken in and her once-soft cheeks were gaunt. It was like just after he transformed. “He broke up with Nick. He would have followed through.”
“So he put it on you to fix his life while he’s asleep. You might have messed it up a little bit, but most of this seems like his mother’s fault.”
“He doesn’t want to wake up. He was hoping he’d disappear if I took over his body.”
“Damn it, Jay. What do you want to do then, Melody?”
“I don’t know! I don't even remember how to be alive. Everything is so overwhelming. I don't know what to do or how to do it."
From what Katie could see, the girl wasn't lying. Jay had tried to leave no one left to mourn him and forced Melody into a corner.
"Do you know how long he'd been planning this?" Katie asked. She needed to establish a timeline. Jay had gone through a couple of phases the last five months.
"He tried to give me his body for the first time eight months ago. Something about people like him being the reason I died."
"What did you say?"
"I told him I wasn't going to kill him and tried to stop him remembering. Obviously it didn't work or I wouldn't be here."
"You can't control him, Melody." The ghost girl looked down at the body she was possessing, then back at Katie. Her eyes silently asked, 'then what's this'. Even ghosts could sass, apparently. "I mean you can't control how he thinks."
"From what he showed me of his plan, it started two months ago. It was something small, from what I remember. Something his mum said about him wearing a dress. The start of the new year probably didn't help either."
"What did she say?"
"Something about him wearing a dress proving that he didn't want to go back to being a guy. Sorry. I only got glimpses of his thought process. I didn't mean for this to get so bad." Melody was still panicking.
"I hate her so much." Katie couldn't dwell on it too much. The more she thought about his mum, the more twisted her thoughts became. "Most of this isn't your fault."
"I'm the one that ruined his life, Katie. If he dies I don't know if I'll be able to live with myself." Katie wanted to point out the fact that she technically was not alive, but now was not the time.
"You shouldn't have changed his body, but it's not your fault he can't stand up for himself."
"I need to start transitioning for him, Katie. Maybe if I do that, I can give him his body back and accelerate his transtion…" Melody was shaking. Her eyes welled up with tears. Katie wanted to slap Jay.
"How about we slow down? It's going to be a while until that can start. Do you need anything?"
"I'd appreciate a hug."
Katie hadn’t seen someone so small eat so much since the last time Jay had come over to drop the gender bender bombshell. It was almost terrifying to watch. Looking at her body, it made sense she was hungry. Jay was such an idiot sometimes. He always managed to forget that not everyone was as terrible as his mum. It did make her wonder, though. What had driven a girl like Melody to do something as drastic as change someone’s body?
“So why did you change his body anyway? I mean there had to have been a better way to deal with this.”
“It was an accident,” Melody replied quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I was just going to mess with his head a bit. Give him some nightmares like the ghost of Christmas future. Then his body started changing to go along with the possession and the grudge that I hold for bigotted teenage boys intensified it; at least I think that's what happened. For you and Adam, I had to make changes slowly, but because I was mad at him he got completely transformed overnight.”
“Are you saying that I could end up like Jay?” Katie had figured that Melody was responsible for her transition progressing as fast as it was, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up. She didn’t want to get jealous of Jay' body anymore, but if Melody could give Katie what she wanted she needed to help her.
“What do you mean?”
“Could you make it so that I can have my own kids?” She was seventeen; this wasn’t something she should be thinking about. Yet she wanted it so bad. She didn’t mind being trans, but not being able to have kids hurt.
“That was the plan. Is that a bad thing?”
“How could giving Adam and I our ideal bodies be a bad thing? I could kiss you!”
“He's close to what he wants. I think. I'm sorry. It should be easier to help you but, I've been focusing on James."
“Can I call Adam and tell him what you are doing for us?”
“I’m not sure I can do it like this, Katie.”
“What do you mean?”
“I'm not sure I can leave Jay’s body until they wake up. No ghost powers.”
“Damn it.”
Damn this really did go dark.
I kinda recognize the destructive things The "protagonist" is doing. I've had a tendency to do similar things when I got angry or sad as a kid. Not close to the extend as Jay or involving suicide tho.
Found ways to hurt myself not to hurt myself, but to hurt the people who loved me. And tried to give away the things most precious to me to the people that I was angry at to drive a rift between us. Even convinced myself at the time that these were not my motivations. I truly was twisted in some ways. Glad I grew out of it.
Not saying its the same for Jay, it just seemed eerily similar.
Most of this is writing from my experiences with being q scared suicidal kid. I'm glad to hear you grew out of it.
@DetectiveRed it rings true unfortunately ?
Wow, that's a powerful story so far! I really hope it'll get better for everyone (except the freaking mother that can burn in hell) in the end
Thanks. My projects are kind of a mess at the moment woth a completely different story taking up my brain atm. Ill try and finish this story soon