I’m still alive?

Strange, I swear I just heard Alice’s voice. Why am I hearing her inside my head?

Because I’m attached to you, imbecile.

You don’t have to remind me of that, you parasitic worm.

Being insulted by a low-life such as yourself is nothing.

I need to get rid of Alice before I lose my mind.

Just give me control over your body and I’ll be gone by tomorrow.

Could you shut up, just listening to your voice is grating.

“Lucius!” Mr Rodriguez shouts at me.

“Yes, sir?” I look straight at him surprised at being called out all of a sudden.

“Were you just daydreaming whilst I was giving an important announcement? Are you bored hearing that one of your classmates was in an accident that you had to space out?”

“Ah, no sir.”

“Could you then tell the entire class what I said a minute ago, seeing you were paying attention?”

I remain silent as he glares at me.

“We don’t have the whole day, Lucius.”

“I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”

“Boy, sorry isn’t enough. Not only did you space out during an important announcement, you even lied about paying attention.”

“I said I was sorry, I’m not sure what more you want from me.”

“Take responsibility for your fucking actions!”

Are we still talking about me spacing out in class?

Mr Rodriguez continues, “I’ve dealt with delinquents such as yourself, always sweet-talking your way out of trouble. You’re not going to fool me boy. Detention. Now!”

Some in the class snicker in amusement but its short lived as all laughter dies when Mr Rodriguez dares anyone to laugh once more.

I slowly stand up and head out the door, making sure to grab a yellow detention slip from him. This guy really has a bone to pick with me. But I’m not going to cause a scene and argue with him. Even though I suspect that is what he wants.

I open the door leading to the detention room to find no teacher present. There’s only one student inside, who has a laptop open.

Okay, I’m not sure what to do over here. This is my first time coming to detention. I’ve always kept my head low, always kept away from trouble and today my luck has run out.

I walk up to the girl her, “Uhm, what am I supposed to do here?”

She glances at me over the rim of her glasses, “Who gives a shit? Just pretend you’re doing work, they’re watching over the camera there.”

She points to the upper left corner of the room. I take a seat far away from her. I don’t know why, you know how toilet etiquette dictates that you take the stall furthest from someone, I think that applies here.

I never took you for the shy type.

Of course, Alice had to remind me of her existence. I ignore her and take out a book to scribble in.

If you help, I’ll grant you anything you want. You’re a teenage boy so I guess a girlfriend will do. Give me control over your body and you can have any girl in this school.

Can you stop?

Okay, if you want a harem than I can provide it to you.

Wow, Alice is unbelievable.

Is it money that you want? My family can pay you a large sum so that you can live your days financially free.

I’m still not going to do it. Even if you promised me millions of dollars.

You’re one piece of work.

Thank you, now leave me alone.

We’ll see.

Tough, I’m going to get rid of you the minute I get back home.

“Are you okay?” I’m startled by a girl in front of me. Oh, she’s the girl with the laptop.

“Yeah,” I say to her.

“But you look like shit, though,” she says taking a sit next to me, “And you seemed to be in deep conversation with yourself.”

“Really?” I say to her yawning, “I’m just tired. Didn’t get some sleep.”

“Do you know the best natural remedy for sleepless nights?”

I shake my head, expecting her to recommend some herbs her mother uses or something.

“Obviously sex,” she grins at me. Wow, she’s rather forward.

“Thanks for the advice, I’ll keep that in mind when I find myself awake at night.”

“Cute. I’m Rebecca by the way, senior year.”

“Lucius, sophomore.”

I’m not that interested in continuing this talk. But something in her eyes makes my heart pound harder. That’s a look a lion gives to a gazelle before pouncing on it.

“Wanna ditch this place?”

“You said the camera-”

Rebecca places her hand on my shoulder and moves her lips near my ears, barely brushing against my earlobes, “You talk too much. I want you so bad, right now.”

I immediately stand up, moving away from her. Clearly Rebecca is thirsty for me but I’m not having it, “Thanks but no thanks.”

I’m helping you out here and you still shoo my gift away.

I should have known this was Alice’s work. But how the hell did she manage to make Rebecca desire me so much?

A lady doesn’t tell her secrets. But I’m demonstrating to you a fraction of my power. Rebecca can be your slave, a toy if you want. Of course, I can make any girl in this school fall head over heels for you. You know what you have to do, Lucius.

“Playing hard to get,” Rebecca smiles, standing up and walking over to me. She pins me against the wall.

I push Rebecca back, “Look, you’re not acting like yourself. I can’t explain this but something is trying to mess with your head right now.”

“The only thing messing with me is you, tiger,” Rebecca forces herself on me again.

ALICE, STOP THIS NOW!

The bell rings just as Rebecca is about to plant her lips on mine. She stares at me, dazed.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know what got over me,” she looks shocked as she distanced herself from me.

“Its fine, it happens to the best of us.”

“I better get going before I pounce on you again,” she laughs nervously, quickly packs her laptop in her bag and leaves.

I’m going to make this more difficult on you.

Whatever. I’m not looking for a slave or a harem of girls. That would be committing the same mistake Sisyphus did, at least under Camus’ interpretation, by finding pleasure in pushing his rock up the hill every day. When you get attached to things, you open yourself to loss which leads to pain and finally misery.

And of course, slavery is bad. That should have been the first thing I said. My bad.

Alice doesn’t respond.

I march outside the detention room and make my way to my chemistry class, avoiding any path that might lead to Mr Rodriguez.

I enter my class and I take my usual seat. The desks in chemistry class a quite long and therefore can have six students seated there. I notice several glass containers around the place.

“Okay students,” says Mrs Brown, our chemistry teacher, “today we’re going to do some experiments demonstrating how neutralisation takes place. Please find a partner to pair up with.”

The most awkward position to be in. Having to find someone to partner up with even though I don’t have any friends here. Not that I need any.

I guess I’ll have to wait until everyone is paired up then join an already paired up group in order for me to be the third wheel.

“Hey, do you mind if we partner up?” says some guy next to me. I know him, his Derrick. The pastor’s son, at least that’s his popular title here. His father usually comes over to preach to the school, no I mean give advice on life matters that just so happen to deal with spiritual matters. Stonefield High wouldn’t want to violate the separation of state and church.

I’m not complaining though about my partner, even a rock would make a good science partner right now if it were allowed.

“Sure, I’ll get the lab coats for the both of us then,” I say to him.

“You don’t have, I’m more than happy to do so,” Derrick stops me.

Urg, his one of those guys. So pious. If he wants to do it then that’s fine with me.

Derrick goes to get the lab coats but he takes forever. He just stands there, letting others grab first. Fuck his a goody two shoes.

“Sorry for taking that long,” he says handing over a lab coat to me.

“Its fine,” I smile back politely. Now I’m forced to wear some crusty yellow dirty lab coat just because he couldn’t push a couple of kids out of his way.

“You’ve got a nice smile,” he chuckles nervously at me.

What the fuck?

“Thanks, I guess. You’ve got… nice blond hair.”

What the hell am I even saying? This is why I avoid religious believers, some are just so altruistic to the point of making any sane person uncomfortable. Dude, don’t be weird and start completing me.

“Nah, you’re just being polite,” he says.

Moving on.

Alice is oddly quiet. You still there, worm?

No answer.

She probably got tired of harassing me. While she does have access to my body, she can’t just suck away my life force without permission.

“I’ve provided each group with two bottles, one has sodium hydroxide and the other has sulphuric acid. You probably noticed some marble tiles near the large glass containers. Now follow my instructions carefully.”

Seems quite simple enough.

Just as I’m about to grab the bottle that had sulphuric acid, Derrick stops me.

“You don’t have to do that. It’s quite dangerous.”

“I can manage just well dealing with chemicals,” I tell him, though I’m not planning on telling him my latest science project involving Uncle Ethan.

“You might get hurt, this is an acid after all.”

“You know that we’re in the group. I have to contribute.”

“You don’t have to.”

Wow, this guy must really want to be a martyr. I know that his father is quite public about his charitable works. Derrick’s father makes certain that when he donates money to a charity organisation, you can bet there’ll be a dozen of cameras around. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Derrick probably wants his popularity as the sweet pastor’s son to increase.

“Whatever, you do what you want. It’s not like I care about this,”

I sit down while watching him pour the acid over the marble tile.

“Amazing, right?” he says as the marble corrodes.

I just nod. I stare at the classroom clock. Still 40 minutes left in this class.

“So, what church do you go to?” Derrick asks as he picks up the sodium hydroxide bottle.

“I don’t go to church,” I answer back flatly.

“Oh!”

Seriously, he’s surprised? We’re in the state of New York, it has one of the largest number of non-religious people in the country.

“So, you’re like an atheist or something?”

“Agnostic.”

He smiles. Well, the label atheist would be accurate but being known as an atheist in this town would be crazy. Atheist is still a dirty word and I don’t need that shit in my life. At least agnostic sounds nice to theists.

“That’s nice, so you’re like confused and not sure whether there is a God or something. I was like that when I was young.”

I stare back at the clock in front of classroom.

39 minutes left. That’s proof there isn’t a god.

“Yeah, you know how it is,” I say to him, “I’m still finding my way, hopefully I’ll find the meaning of life soon enough.

He nods.

“You know, there’s a youth group in my church for people like you. I think it would be great.”

“That sounds nice,” I say in a tone indicating that this line of conversation needs to stop.

“Great! Could you give me your phone number then?”

“My phone number?”

“Oh, for the youth group I mean!”

Should I just lie and say that I don’t have a phone? Nah, that’s quite a colossal lie to pull off in this day and age. I’ll give him a fake.

I give him the digits and this bastard immediately calls it. That’s not allowed during class. What happened to the goody two shoes?

“The number you gave doesn’t exist,” he says concerned.

“I’m so sorry, I got confused for a second there. I’m so tired.”

Quite a persistent little shit. I give him my correct phone number. He can bet I’m not going to answer any calls or messages from him. I’m definitely not interested in this youth club.

Time quickly passes by. And we leave, Derrick and I going our separate ways. Now thinking about it, am I forced to greet him from now on? Hopefully not.

You’re so precious.

Alice, so you returned.

I wasn’t away. I was just listening to your conversation with your new friend.

Friend. Don’t make me laugh.

Is he your type?

Piss off!

I touched a nerve. Look around you, Lucius. Do you notice something off? Like people just staring at you for no reason?

Indeed, people were glancing at me for no reason. Girls stared at me as though I was a bottle of water in the middle of the dessert. Guys looked uncomfortable to be even around me.

I went straight to history class and the students there were stealing glances at me. And with each pair of eyes that took note of me, I felt like crawling in some hole and hiding for the entire day.

I had to get rid of her. Alice was using some kind of ghost abilities to affect the pupils here. Even though she’s alive, she still got ghost powers.

I don’t need this attention in my life.

Give me control over your body and they’ll stop looking at you.

I don’t care! If you think I’m going to roll over like some mattress then you have something else coming your way.

I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes. Look, Alice. Let’s make a deal.

I’m listening.

I’m not giving you control over my body but I’m going to your family estate to ask what happened to you. Now have them stop noticing me.

Fine then, I’ll stop. But it happens today, after school.

After a few minutes, everything goes back to normal and everyone stops paying attention to me. Well, not everyone. There are some stranglers still under the charm used by Alice but they’ll get over it soon enough.

Lunch takes forever to arrive. I go to my usual spot, surrounded by no one and in peace by myself.

It’s been awhile since I had a proper meal. I take out a sandwich from my bag and take a small bite. I barely get around to swallowing it. It tastes worse than marmite.

Alice, you need to get out of my body. I can’t carry on like this.

Nope.

I’ll let you in again, just have my word.

Not happening, Lucius!

You should know that I’m not lying to you. You have access to my mind, remember? So you should know when I’m lying.

Oh, yeah. I guess you’re not. But I want you to swear on your honour that you’ll let me back in.

Fine, I promise. Now get out.

Alice exits out of me. This time around I take a large bite of the sandwich. I never thought I’d miss my peanut butter sandwich so much.

“Why haven’t you asked me about my loathing to your food?” Alice asks.

I gulp down some orange juice. “It’s none of my business. I’m not interesting in inquiring about any eating disorder you have.”

“Good,” she nods.

The rest of lunch we spend in quiet, with neither of us saying anything to the other. As promised, I allow Alice to enter my body once again after finishing lunch. I won’t lie, I was tempted to put my guards up and not let her in. But I have to stand by my word. Stupid, but I can’t bash people for being untrustworthy if I’m dishonest too.

I take my leave. I badly want to skip school and just figure out what happened to Alice. But being the good student that I am, I attend the remaining classes without question.

___

The last period bell rings with much fun fare.

Alice gives me the directions to her house but it wasn’t necessary. Everyone knows where the Steward mansion is at. It’s the largest house in this town. Unfortunately, I don’t have an expensive car to bring me there so I have to walk for an hour to the edge of the town where the Steward mansion is placed.

A large wall surround the estate. I walk uneasily towards the iron gates. There is a bell in the front entrance and I press it.

“This is the Steward’s residence, may I assist you?”

“I’m from Alice’s high school and I was wondering if I could see her?”

I think I came of too strong.

“And who might you be?”

Say you’re my pet.

Alice, you crazy if you think I’m going to say that.

“I’m her friend.”

The butler chuckles, “My mistress has a friend? I never heard of you though. What’s your name?”

Just listen to me, Lucius. Just say you’re my pet.

Why?

Just do it! He won’t let you in.

“I’m sorry, I misspoke. I’m Alice’s pet. Lucius is my name.”

“Is that so? Approach the camera in order to show me your mark.”

Shit! I totally forgot about that. Tell him you don’t have it but you’re still my pet because I’ve yet to bind you.

Is this normal with rich folk? Maybe this is a Steward household thing. Pets? Binding?

“She hasn’t binded me so there is no mark,” I say to the butler.

“So how do I know that you’re actually her pet?’

Because I’ve given you the sacred words of my house.

“Till the eternal night arrives, we must suffer the glowing rays of fate.”

Weird but nobles are generally weird I guess. At least from the few documentaries I’ve watched online.

“You may enter,” he says sternly.

A small gate opens and I enter. Strange there are no guards in this place. The front lawn is quite large, one could fit a football stadium here. And so it takes time to reach the mansion. The cherry blossom trees and rose bushes do look beautiful. But for some reason, the air around this place seems heavy.

I reach the front door of the mansion where the butler is waiting for me. He’s that silver haired guy I thought was Alice’s father.

“Welcome to the Steward’s residence, Lucius. My name is Graham,” he smiles quite friendly to me.

“Thank you very much,” I shake his hand. Firm grip.

“Do follow my lead,” Graham says as we go through the hallway of this place. He leads me to the living room. It’s mostly identical to the one in Alice’s memory.

“Would you like some tea?”

“No, I just wanted to see Alice. It pains me that she was injured.”

“Oh, she’s actually upstairs. In her room, asleep.”

Did you hear that Alice? I guess being rich means not needing to stay in a hospital.

I don’t get an answer from Alice. I can still feel her in me but something about this place is suppressing her communication with me. Maybe some kind of ghost repellent. No matter, if I can get to her body then everything will be alright.

“You say that you’re her pet. What did she see in you, Lucius?”

Alice?

Nothing. I have to make something up.

“I’m funny, she liked my sense of humour and my good personality.”

“Nothing else?”

I don’t know what ‘pets’ do, it sounds rather BDSM to me. But shouldn’t Alice be too young for that? I don’t know, I’ll have to make stuff up. The word pet does sound intimate, I guess intimidate stuff come with it.

“She does say I’m a good kisser, so that’s one thing.”

This gets a surprised look from the butler, “My mistress, allowed you to even touch her?”

Judging by his tone, that answer is certainly a no.

“Of course not, she touched me. She was the one initiating… stuff. This is rather embarrassing saying to a grownup.”

“What stuff?”

“Teenage stuff. It’s a bit embarrassing,” I try shifting the conversation away from all of this talk about Alice. I just need to get to her and hopefully transfer her soul back to her body.

“Teenage stuff like kissing?” he clenches his fist, “Anything more intimate then that?”

I couldn’t tell from his tone or facial gesture what kind of answer he wanted. His more difficult to decipher than my social worker who oversees my case.

“Do you mean sex?” I ask him.

“I don’t know, what possibly could be the most intimate thing between a mistress and her pet.”

“I guess… sex.”

His left eyebrow twitches for a bit. I’m not sure if I said something wrong. This would be an excellent time for Alice to come in and tell me what’s going on.

The butler smiles, “Please follow me upstairs. I’m sure you being around her will fasten her recovery. Seeing how close you two were.”

I breathe I sigh of relief. Guess my bluff worked. I should get on Oscar for that.

We climb the wooden stairs quietly. When we reach her room, the butler opens the door for me to enter first. His rather polite.

I enter the room but don’t find Alice anywhere.

“Graham, I don’t see Alice here,” I turn to face him but I Graham has transformed into this muscles hulk of a creature. He’s now grey skinned and has glowing red eyes. Drool drips from his mouth full of razor teeth and sizzles when it comes into contact with the wooden floor. I’m going to die.

Before I my brain could register all of this for me to run, he lunges at me and with one swift punch to my jaw, I crash to a nearby wall.

I start hearing ringing noises and the room spins out of control.

“Human, do you take me for a fool?” his voice now claws at my ear drums. “For that, you must pay.”

He grabs me by the neck and lifts me by one hand. His grip tightens more and more around my neck. Can’t breathe.

I weakly try to fight him off. I jab at his arm but this only makes him laugh.

“Vermin such as yourself deserve nothing more than a painful death. To even imply that my mistress would fornicate with a warm bodied mortal deserves supreme punishment.”

My vision blurs even more. Human? Vermin? What is he on about?

If only…