Chapter 4 – On a Mission

Down but not out. Most people would rather be out, watching from the sidelines with a large bucket of popcorn to keep them munching while they watch the rest struggle. Being beaten but still in the game is nothing but an added humiliation to an already miserable situation. How anyone could enjoy being down was a mystery to Ingrid.

Sitting with her head leaning against the front of her house, Ingrid had given up. It had been three days of torture, watching as Mary masqueraded as herself in her own home, seducing her husband and just generally rubbing it in Ingrid's face. Ingrid couldn't face it any longer. Knowing that behind the face William was waking up to each morning was a twisted spirit made Ingrid sick. Every touch, every kiss William gave Mary was like another blow to the stomach for her. Couldn't he see that Ingrid was acting differently: she was looser, smugger, and more intimate? Ingrid was finding it difficult to process that the man she thought was her one true love couldn't tell the real her from a phony, even if it did still look like her on the outside.

She had tried everything in her power to reclaim her body. She'd fought for it, she'd bargained – she had even begged. Mary scoffed at everything Ingrid threw at her, not even worried that she would take back what was rightfully hers. Every time she had failed, Ingrid felt more useless. If she couldn't even get her body back from a dead woman, what could she do? From inside, Ingrid could hear the playful giggling of Mary and William. It was bad enough that Mary was abusing her body to make her giggle but did it have to sound so shrill? That was one of the reasons Ingrid tried to avoid giggling like a school girl.

Ingrid had not imagined the rest of her life looking so bleak when she was younger. She had pictured it a little how it was going until Mary Adler-Smith showed up: graduate university, become a P.E teacher, fall in love, get married, have kids, die happy. It didn't look like she had much hope of successfully accomplishing the last two things on her list, sadly. She wouldn't get the rush of knowing an actual baby was growing inside her or the triumphant feeling that her life had all been worth it at the end. This probably was the end.

With an inward groan, Ingrid buried her head in her hands. She could remember being a teenager and thinking her life was over simply because Isabelle had borrowed her favourite top and ruined it. Her life was most definitely over now. All hope had been sucked away from her and as Ingrid wallowed in self pity, she heard the unmistakeable sounds of William and Mary thoroughly enjoying them selves inside the house. Ingrid felt ten times worse.

"Excuse me, are you dead?" Ingrid's head shot up. Standing in front of her was a young woman with hair that was obviously dyed, judging by the almost-white shade of blonde it was in contrast to her thin brown eyebrows. The woman stood stiffly, straining her eyes rather than bending her head slightly to look down at Ingrid and she tugged at her baby pink t-shirt self-consciously as she waited for Ingrid to answer. Ingrid scrambled to her feet, pulling the hem of William's shirt down to cover her milky thighs. It had seemed like such a good idea that night to don an old shirt of William's that had the character Mr Strong emblazoned on the front and a pair of his boxers as pyjamas. Now that she had spent three days in them without the slightest opportunity to get dressed, Ingrid had seen the errors of her ways. She looked ridiculous.

"No, I'm not," informed Ingrid, glad to finally have someone to talk to. It came as a surprising relief to finally be seen by someone other than Mary. "Why, are you?" The other woman nodded guiltily, smiling shyly at Ingrid.

"About five months now. Broke my neck when I fell down the stairs!" The woman giggled at the memory. "Woops, forgot to introduce myself. I'm Tanya!" Tanya eagerly shoved her hand in front of Ingrid, waiting for her to shake it. Ingrid did so cautiously.

"Ingrid." Tanya beamed at her.

"You know, when you're dead like me they give you a death name. Mine's Tanya Trips, 'cause I'm so clumsy," said Tanya cheerfully. Ingrid found herself quickly becoming lost in the babble that was leaving Tanya's mouth. Ingrid had met girls like Tanya before; ditzy, giggly girls with more air in their heads than brains. Meeting her didn't make Ingrid feel any more hopeful about her situation. So what if Tanya was dead, like Mary. That didn't mean she knew her or could help Ingrid out.

"Mary Adler-Smith? I know her!" shrieked Tanya when Ingrid mentioned it. Ingrid's face lit up as she caught sight of a small glimmer of hope.

"Really?" asked Ingrid, her brown eyes bright. Tanya confirmed that she did.

"We used to be best friends before we became dead! Actually, I was looking for her. She ran away from the Agency and they sent me to get her back," explained Tanya, not very helpfully. Ingrid was beginning to become confused with nearly every sentence that came out of Tanya's mouth. Why weren't she and Mary best friends anymore? If Tanya had been looking for her, wouldn't Mary's former house be the first place she'd search? Why had it taken Tanya over a week to get here? And what was the Agency?

Grimly, Ingrid explained to Tanya what Mary had so cruelly done and Tanya listened to every word intently, her expression changing to one of seriousness. Ingrid had the feeling that Tanya wasn't really taking it all in but wasn't deterred by that and when she was finished, Tanya stared her straight in the eye.

"We need to get back to the Agency right now. This is serious business!" Tanya announced, and she grabbed Ingrid's wrist, dragging her away from the house. Ingrid was amazed Tanya could move so fast in such a tight mini skirt. As she allowed herself to be pulled away, Ingrid took one last look at her house before they turned the corner. She vowed that when she got back, everything would go back to normal and she'd enjoy the rest of her life with William like she'd intended to from the start.

Tanya was pacing so quickly that her shoulder length hair billowed out behind her and Ingrid caught a glimpse of the back of her neck. What she saw made Ingrid cringe, her toes curling up. Sticking out at an awkward angle from the back of Tanya's neck was her spine. It must have been some fall she'd had down those stairs.

Note: I wanna get as many chapters out of the way as possible so when school starts it doesn't get in the way. Hope you're enjoying this so far, your feedback would be nice :)