Hello there ! My name is Erekio. I used to write in French but now I'm trying to write in English. That's why you might find some grammatical mistakes, because I'm not a native speaker. Please tell me if you find some, so I can correct them as fast as I can !

I usually draw something for each chapter but I can't post them on Fanfiction-NET. You can find them on AO3 or my Tumblr if you want to !

Happy reading !

It hurt. Every part of his nonexistent body hurt like hell.

Snatcher's eyes were closed as he slowly woke up from the pain. He was lying down on the ground, on something hard, which only worsened the ache in his body. For a reason he didn't know, he could barely move an inch, as if he had no power left inside of him.

Something was off about this.

The ghost tried to open his eyes but quickly shut them off again, as a considerable ray of light surprised him. "What the...?" He thought to himself, taken aback by the flash, unable to understand what it was at first. Carefully, he reopened his eyes and squinted not to be blinded by the light. He instinctively brought his right hand to his face, only to notice that this wasn't his hand.

Startled, the shade let out a shriek and a feeling of dread settled over him when he didn't recognize his own voice. This wasn't his voice!

Now completely awoken, the ghost fought the exhaustion and forced his body to straighten. He then looked all over himself, trying to understand what was happening. However, he froze immediately at the sight in front of him: instead of his usual spectral tail, he had two legs, ones that were very real. But the worst was that they were connected to him, to a humanoid body he didn't recognize.

-"Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no..." This couldn't be happening. There was no way this was reality. Ghosts couldn't sleep and even less dream, but this could not be real.

Snatcher brought up his hands to his face, hoping to feel the expected shadowy texture he always had. Nonetheless, when his fingers touched skin, eyes, nose, mouth, hair, ears... Horror grew inside of him, only confirming the fear he had tried not to believe at first.

He was in a human body. And not only inhabiting one, he became human. As a soul-stealing type of ghost, he obtained many powers through all those years being dead, possession being one of them. However, what was happening didn't feel like possession. On the contrary, he felt very much alive and powerless, quite literally.

His breath got caught in his throat and soon, it became hard for him to breathe. He had been dead for hundreds of years, how could he remember how to do it well so suddenly? His body probably did it instinctively when he woke up, but now he had to do it himself and he had no idea how to do so. Panic surely played a part in that.

He curled up, trying to get air back in his lungs without coughing, in vain. Maybe he would die again and things could go back to how they were before ? He had died once, he could do it again! Though, he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he did die this time. A dead person never came back as a ghost unless they had very strong feelings before dying. What would happen to a ghost trapped in a human's body? Would he regain his previous form? Or would he simply be banished to whatever place souls went when no one was here to steal them? He wasn't sure, and all these thoughts were persuasive enough to calm him down. He couldn't take the risk of dying so stupidly without knowing what would happen to him after that, and especially what had happened for him to be in this situation in the first place.

Little by little, he pulled himself together. He managed to stay calm and established a breath rhythm: "in, out, in, out, in..." Saliva began to pile up in his mouth and, not remembering how to swallow yet, he had no other idea but to spit it out. He couldn't deny the fear of choking himself with it, when he had just learnt how to breathe again! The idea itself would be so hilarious to him if he was in any other situation and if it affected someone else. Though, now, he just wanted to stay alive at least until he figured out what or who put him a human body.

Snatcher took a deep breath once it became more intuitive and started to think. How did he get here? He had been patrolling in his forest, and suddenly, there had been some sort of earthquake, and then... A flash, with white everywhere. It had felt so... Abrasive. As if all of his being had been wiped out of existence... No matter how hard he tried to remember, he felt a hole in his memories, as if a piece of it had been taken away from him. And now... The old shade studied his surroundings for the first time since he woke up. He was wearing a long red coat, rather warm. He also seemed to wear formal yellow pants and purple boots, all of this making him quite uneasy and he looked away. Just what he needed... Being in a body with clothes just like the ones he used to wear himself! Lucky him!

He quickly put that thought away, to focus more on the present. Sensations were so intense. He could feel everything at once: clothes on his skin, wind on his face, smells from nature... As a ghost, he had lost the senses of smell and touch. All he had been able to feel through those years was coldness on a metaphorical skin, like a phantom limb feeling. It had always been here to haunt him and to remind him of all this time passed in the cellar... Sometimes, he even felt the shackles on his wrists. He couldn't dream but he had flashes of memories, visions... It never lasted very long, but it was there. He couldn't really run away from the thing that changed him so much. And now... The coldness was gone. The lack of that freezing feeling made him anxious, because he had been used to it for so long, though it felt... So good, being able to sense warmth again.

Trees were all around him, circling him. Green was everywhere : in foliages, grass, bushes, mosses on stumps... Wind was echoing all around him. The weather seemed calm and almost warm. Above all of this was the Sun, shining through holes between leaves. That was without any doubt the light he saw earlier. No wonder it had blinded him : it was so strong... It had been years since he last saw the Sun, pretty much exactly the day when Subcon Village changed after Vanessa's outburst.

The simple thought of his village quickly made him realize the gravity of his position: if he was here... Then no one was in the village to protect it against his ex. He had to go back! He did have many minions; nonetheless, their bodies were very fragile, as they were only made of clothes. They wouldn't stand a chance against the livid old woman he knew so well. Maybe she had already sensed his disappearance and left her manor? He couldn't stay there: he had to protect his kingdom. Much more determined, Snatcher tried to get himself back to his feet, in vain: his new legs were heavier than he first thought. His limbs didn't answer the way he wanted them to and it hurt to move them. It couldn't be that hard! That hat wearing child could run and jump everywhere in his forest, why wouldn't he be able to do the same? It shouldn't take him more than a few seconds to remember how legs worked! After all, he had been human before!

Yet, when he tried to stand up, he fell right back on the ground. The fall hurt his already aching body and he felt air leave his lungs from the impact.

-"Oh, this is just great." He groaned between his teeth. He put his hands on the dirt, ready to pick himself back up. As he started to lift his body from the ground once again, something caught his attention on his left hand. Was this a ring on his ring finger? He scoffed: man alive, already being in a relationship! It served him right the first time and he certainly didn't want to relive anything like that again.

Just as he was about to get the ring off his finger, he stopped: he... Knew that ring.

His face grew pale instantly and he felt his heart skip a beat. His breathing sped up and it was as if a bucket full of cold water was poured right on him. His mind was already trying to find any logical explanation to convince himself that what he was seeing wasn't reality.

On this hand, the one he didn't believe to be his... Was his old engagement ring, which he could recognize anywhere. A beautifully carved ruby, on a golden ring, on which was written the name of his old lineage... A perfectly unique piece of jewellery. How could this ring be here, when it should be on his dead body-

And then a feeling of pure horror appeared on his face as it all started to make sense. Waking up in a human body which clothes looked just like his, being in a forest he thought he didn't know, wearing a piece of jewellery that belonged to his ancestors... He brought his hands to his head, feeling his fingers intertwining with hair, this brown and wavy hair that once belonged to him.

He was in his old body. The one which had long rotten in his ex's basement... Then how? Why? This shouldn't be possible! It was all he could think about, while panic was slowly taking control of him. He could feel his own heart rapidly beating inside, again and again and again, without stopping. But he was supposed to be dead! How did he not understand right away ? Sure, it had be hundreds of years, but it was still his old body! The thing he had to look at for hours once shackled to a wall in the cellar of his old manor!

Did he try so hard to forget his past that he almost forgot what he looked like before? Sure it had felt familiar but...

Snatcher brought his shaking hands back in front of his face, not wanting to believe what was happening. It was too much. He felt dizzy and sick, things he hadn't felt for years. His mind searched for any piece of information he had, hoping to find a way out of this situation. And then it hit him.

The kid. It had to be her fault! There was no other explanation, regarding time travelling stuff. All of her timepieces that allowed anyone to rewind time once broken... Maybe one fell into his forest? Or could she have broken one herself? But then, it didn't make sense. Why would she even do that? She had no reason to, and even if she wanted to play a prank on him... She always picked up those timepieces with great care, not wanting to drop one clumsily. If his situation was the cause of a broken timepiece, it was either an accident from the kid, or someone else's fault. But, in that case, who? He thought the child had retrieved all of them. Could it be possible that she had missed one and that someone took it? Probably not, she really was stubborn on getting them back. And in that case, he would have felt the presence of that someone in his forest.

Snatcher grabbed the trunk of a nearby tree in order to stand up without stumbling. He needed to find a way of contacting the kid, and fast. She was the only person able to help him. But once again, he realized with dread that if he was here, in his old body... Then she wasn't even born yet. He almost fell to the ground again.

His only means of getting out of here, out of this body... Didn't exist yet. Snatcher was alone. But this wasn't all. The forest wasn't frozen. It was still alive, full of life...

And if was alive as well... So was Vanessa.