This was weird. Very weird. Very, very weird.
I was here but not really there. I could think but not act. I could feel but not make any contact and there wasn't a lot I was certain of but one thing I was certain of was that I was not alone.
Somebody was there with me, in my head. She wasn't aware of me but I was thoroughly aware of her. I searched through her thoughts her name was Rose Petals in the Wind - Rose for short - from the flower planet friends with Buttercup Breeze and Petals Open to the Moon and this was my – no her – fourth planet first the Mists Planet then the Dolphins then the Flowers now here, she liked the Flowers best. She was listening to a conversation.
"Are you sure it was a good idea to keep her as a host?" a soft female voice was saying.
"Absolutely certain, she's only 14 and two grown men went for her it was purely instinct, humans are violent things it was only to be expected. I know they say you should never speak ill of the dead but Starlight Glitters really should have been less careless and his partner only just woke up too, this one's feisty for someone so small…" another female voice replied, slightly deeper than the last and positively wreaking of confidence.
So the body-snatchers had stuck a worm in the back of my head ssss-uper. I suppose I was luckier than most though at least I only had the one secret to protect one that they didn't even know I had – I liked that. However, I threw up every mental protection I had around it just in case.
It was stirring now, wiggling my fingers and toes and getting used to the heightened senses, she was uncomfortable. I liked that too. I wasn't the only one who had noticed it moving either the two women were quiet now in rapt attention.
"Hello there young one, and what shall we call you?" It had opened my eyes now and was looking at the women who spoke she was in about her late twenties with short blonde hair tied into a pony tail and a kindly smile.
"I," Ugh, I Hated how it used my voice it made me sound so … pompous "am Rose Petals in the Wind, but please call me Rose."
"Excellent," the other women was taller than the first with bright orange hair plaited down her back was scrawling on a clip-board, "and you can call me Healer Melody"
I stifled a mental gasp (I had a feeling I should be very quiet at this moment in time) I knew her! She was, well not a friend I wasn't aloud friends but I knew her she taught my self-defence class her name was Madison.
"And I'm your Comforter Meagan," the blond one added smiling.
"Okay, now Rose I need you to do something for me, can you please recall any details for us from your host's life just to make sure there is not damage to the memory?"
"Of course, her name was Avasa O'Shea Kennedy, shortened to Ava; she lived with her adopted parents Bob and Maureen Kennedy all her life here in Colorado and used to have a Nanny called Brenda Marchetti who had a daughter named Olivia. She missed Brenda, she died a few weeks ago, and she used to have a funny saying for her: Avasa by name, Avasa by nature. She disliked her parents; she wished she could have stayed with her real family as she didn't know why they got rid of her and kept her twin sister," Rose cringed away from the emotional wrecking her feeble little mind was getting from that tiny description of a tiny portion of my life; she had never felt pain like this before. "The O'Sheas, have they been caught?" she added the last question herself in a selfish attempt to make herself feel better.
"Not all of them, I'm afraid your older brothers, Ian and Kyle, are still out there but the mother, Erica, father ,Ross, and your twin, Kayleigh, all live in Pasadena, California. Of course they go under different names now though…" Healer Melody replied "you can go see them if it will make you feel better"
She paused and thought about that for a while but stopped abruptly, flinching away from the searing pain of rejection that reunion might bring.
"No, I'll be fine here"
In the weeks that followed I stayed quiet, I did not fade away but I sometimes gave her guidance when she was about to harm the body I was determined to get back. She never dove too far into my mind, scared of what she might find so my barriers weren't tested – I wasn't a suspect in the rebel resistance. Her Calling was Healer, even though she could fill many other callings had she been so inclined, but Healing had an independent and fulfilling edge – I disliked any similarities I found in our personalities, this one in particular, but she was alone through choice and I used to be alone because I had no other choice. She was climbing the training ranks fast; at the moment she was the Soul equivalent of head nurse.
I probably wouldn't have minded her so much if she wasn't such a complainer.
Oh, I hate dark hair. Ugh this pale skin would never catch a tan if I live on the sun! Blue eyes make me feel cold. I'm so short, I can't reach anything. This body's far too young I prefer a curvier physique. Such an awkward size how do you ever find clothes that fit?!
She complained, spoke and whined, to me, at me and about me – like having a constant headache. She never brought my awareness to Meagan's attention because she thought it as normal and saw me as no danger anyway.
But 3 months into her travel training to be a Healer she snapped, someone patted me on the head for the third time that day and she decided she'd had enough.
That it! I can't take it anymore! I'm skipping! I don't care what people think! I hate being petted like a dog and looked at and undermined like child I'm tired of this! She screamed at me internally, I'd had no illusions of grandeur about my appearance like she had so none of it hurt my feelings if anything I had to suppress my glee she was simply too much of a pain to miss.
Okay Rose, so what will happen now? I ask her, genuinely curious.
I'm going back to my original Healer in Colorado to get reinserted into another body … oh you meant what would happen to you oh well, you'll get put onto a life support machine to wait until a different Soul needs a host. She explained this was a relief in some ways, I was glad I wasn't being disposed of, that I wasn't suspected.
Everything went very smoothly after that, I kept quiet and she caught a shuttle from New York to Colorado the next morning and was very still while she discussed with her Healer the kind of host she wished for next it all breezed by very quickly. Next thing I know she's putting me under for the operation …