Imprint (6 page)

“Can’t this wait?”

“
No.
Explain.
”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I did.”

The response was somehow patronising, and
Sean bristled with irritation.
“Try me.”

A pained chuckle, but something gleamed in the pair of eyes, something alive. “Tell me,” it started. “What do you think happens when people die?”

“What has this got to do with anything?”

“Just answer the question.”

Sean shrugged. “
They stop
functioning, I guess.
They’re buried, and then their bodies decompose.”

“Don’t you
believe in heaven and hell?”

“No, I’m an atheist
.
Heaven and hell are just myths, invented in ancient times to blackmail people into bein
g good
.”

“What about
reincarnation?”

“Still only
a myth
.”

“You have a
very
scien
tific view on life,” it
croaked. “
That’s good. Means you’re a cynic like me, I guess.
But not everything can be expl
ained by science alone, unfortunately
. Sometimes you have to consider other possibilities.”

“Like what?”

“Like maybe, death isn’t the
end. Like maybe, death doesn’t
mean you simply cease to exist.”

Sean let out a forced laugh
, at how ridiculous this whole situation was. “What? Are you saying ghosts are real? And zombies
too?” he sneered.

“Something like that.
”
There was an awkward pause in the room then, and the air itself seemed to have stilled as well so that it was perfectly silent.
A stray beam of light filtered through a crack in the grimy curtains and Sean could only stare.
“Zombies don’t exist. And they’re not exactly ghosts
,” it started
carefully.
“But yes, there are things that come after death. Death is only a transition from this world into another.”

“What the hell are you talking about
?”

“Imprints.” When Sea
n could only continue to ogle
, it
elaborated
. “When a person
dies, their soul
leaves their body.
If the body is buried rather than cremated, i
t continues to exist on
the life energy still left over, because their still tied to this earth.
It always takes the appearance of
that
previous body
and cannot age
, because it’s really just an imprint of who that person used to
be. Like a shadow
.
It keeps their memories, their persona
lity, everything except for
physical sensation. T
hat soul is free to wander. However
it can’t be seen or heard by living people and
its
existence gets weaker over time and the further away from its body it stray
s.
Eventually, these souls just
fade away
into nothing
.
They move on, to whatever comes after I guess.
Sometimes you hear rumours about reincarnation, but nothing is certain.
”

It sounded so unrealistic, like someone’s warped fantasy, but at the
same time a part of him was tempted to believe
t
his explanation. It made sense
that there would be a part of humans that was more than just electrical impulses from the brain, a part of humans that could live on. He closed his ey
es and tried to clear his mind of the
million buzzing que
stions and thoughts that battered
against his skull.
“I still don’t understand, though,” he whispered. “Say, hypothetically, that all of w
hat you just said is true. W
hat does it have to do with me? Who are you?”

The other’s eyes seemed to cloud over again, as if in thought or remembrance.
“That’s what I am; an
‘
I
mprint
’
. I died four years ago, when I was sixteen.
I’ve been wandering since, looking for a way to live again. To do the impossible and come back from the dead.
A
nd I
found my solution:
swapping
places with you.”

Sean floundered, only able to force one word out. “How
?”

“Surely you noticed,” it said, burgundy eyes dark and intense.
“
Weeks before that car accident, how you felt like s
omeone was watching you, and those
strange dreams you had. T
hat was all me. I’d
been following you around, and then
the perfect chanc
e came along. You got hit by that car
and fell
into a coma.
Your
life force was barely there
and your defences
were
gone;
it was the perfect opportunity. I managed to separate your soul from your body while the bonds holding them together were at their weakest, and then I took its place.”

Sean blinked again,
sluggish mind struggling to catch up
. “So
you’re really someone else
, in my body? You basically hijacked me?
”

“
Yup. Glad you finally got it
.”

In
its own completely unbelievable way, it made sense. Sean felt light-headed, a strange contrast to how heavy his head had felt before. He was almost certain now that this was not ju
st a nightmare. It was too real,
too complex
.
There was actually
someone else
inhabiting his body, as if it could be rented out like a house. How screwed up was that?
He let out a sigh and shook his head in frustration.
“Why me, then?” he
asked. “Why did you choose me, out of anyone else in the world?”

“It
was luck that I found you.
Something like this happening is very rare, almost impossible be
cause most of the time a soul is only compatible with
its
own body, but this
is
a special case.” A hollow laugh. “
I felt it when I first started following you – I felt stronger and more alive around you. It made me want to live again.
We’re connected somehow, and that’s the only reason this worked.
”

Sean nodded numbly, accepting this information wordlessly and turning his unfocused gaze to his clammy,
pale hands.
Shouldn’t they be translucent? “So
it’s true
then.
I’m
dead?”

“Not dead, but not
alive either.
You’re stuck somewhere in between.
”

“So I’m a…bodiless soul
.”

“An I
mprint.”

“And what about you?”

“
Ex-I
mprint, I guess.”

“Who are you?”
Sean asked.

“When I was alive, my name was
Drew. But from now on, I am you.
”

“That’s impossible.”

Suddenly, a quiet knock came from the door. The corners of Drew’s – at least this
thing
that was infesting his body now had a name – mouth tur
ned upwards into a twisted grin
, that vaguely reminded him of a jack-o’-lantern. “Really?”
he
whispered. “
Then w
hy don’t you see for yourself.”

Before Sean
had time to protest, to run, the door on the other side of the room creaked open to reveal
a shock of unruly dark hair.
Hayden entered the room, carrying a tray laden with
soup and bread.

Drew skilfully feigned sleep. B
alancing the tray precariously on one hand
, Hayden
made his way across the r
oom
to the bed
. Sean felt a streak of hope, which quickly grew and
engulfed his thoughts. Finally,
there
was
an end to the madness.
Everything was going to be okay now – his big brother was here and, despite the normal sibling rivalry between them, Sean respected him.
Sean trusted him.
With a relieved smile he frantically
picked his way across to Hay
den and called his name.
Hayden made no response, didn’t
even acknowledge the call. Instead he just set the tray down on the table
, smoothing the bed covers
. Was this some sort of sick game
? Why was he
ignoring him? Sean shook his head and
tried again.
When he received no response, he let out a growl of irritation and leapt forwards to grab his brother’s bony shoulders, to try and rattle some sense into him.

It came as a surprise, therefore, when his hands never made c
ontact and instead simply passed
straight through Hayden’s shoulders.

He couldn’t feel anything. His body was numb, unfeelin
g; as good as dead. He couldn’t
feel the rough, frayed fabric of Hayden’s sweater smothering his fingers, or the ‘misplaced’ sock he was treading on beneath his toes, or…he tried again. He screamed out the name with all of the energy he had left to muster
and his hands turned into fists, his own voice reverberating in his ears. He yelled until he should have been ho
arse
. And all the while, Hayden was
watching the still figure in the bed
as though Sean was invisible, as though he couldn’t hear him,
as though he didn’t exist.

It hit him then, properly and with the force of a wall of
water
, crashing down on him and condemning the world to silence. His world might as well be sile
nt from now on. His own brother, and probably all of his friends and family,
didn’t
acknowledge his existence anymore.
He tried to stop Hayden as the older boy turned to leave, hoping desperately that this wasn’t simply the end, that he might sense his presence or something
equally ludicrous. H
e blocked the doorway to try and stop him.
But
Hayden, with his gaunt, wearied eyes that could normally see through anyone, simply walked straight on, straight through him without blinking.

There was silence aft
er the door
closed;
a stifling silence that seemed to stretch on for days and lingered in the tense air even after it was broken.
“He didn’t
see me,” Sean murmured. H
is voice was glass shattering and echoing; a vain attempt to fill something that was empty.

From the bed there was
a shudder, and then stillness.
“I told you, didn’t I?
Only other Imprints
can see
you now. Although I’m an exception, obviously
.”

In that moment, Sean wanted nothing more than to feel pain. He wanted to hit his head against the wall and feel the resulting throb, he wanted to scratch at his skin until he drew blood and could feel the sting; something to prove to himself that he was still alive. Yet when h
e tried to test out this theory he still felt
nothing, just an endless numbness that was suffocating him into madness. He turned to peer at the human-sha
ped lump in the bed
and an irrational anger flared inside him. It scorched and combusted and devoured any of the common sense he had left. That lump, that
thing
, wa
s the reason for all of this.
He lunged at the bed, lashing out fiercely in a flurry of flailing limbs
, but found himself passin
g straight through the bed to the other side.

“It’s not going to work, you know, so give it up,”
came
a haughty voice. “
You’re not physically alive; you can’t touch me let alone hurt me.”

Sean ignored the words, fear and
anger still coursing through his body
like poison
. “Just GET OUT!” he roared. “Get the hell out of my life and just…I want things to
be
normal again.”

“Normal? From now on, this is normal.”

Sean glared, eyes boring into the
back of Drew’s
head
. “
Do I have to pay you a ransom or something? Just give me my body back, you bastard.
”