A sharp pinch behind my ear wakes me up with a jolt. I feel a cold ribbon spread up to my brain and I grab my head tightly, trying to push the painful cold presence out of my head.

Suddenly, three sharp, angry words echo in my head: YOU. ARE. MINE.

“What the—?!” I yell, batting my head. What the heck is happening to me?!

A white light blinds me for a moment, even though it’s pitch black in my bedroom. I have to bury my face into my pillow to smother another scream. I don’t want my parents to hear me. They’re so…overprotective, and idiotic, and moronic, and…what am I thinking?! What’s happening? Why am I thinking these thoughts?!

“Alec?” my mother’s gentle, tired voice follows her soft knock on my door. “Are you okay?”

“Go away!” I shout at the door, throwing my pillow. I’m so angry it’s hard to think straight!

Yes, anger is good. That sharp voice echoes again. Here comes your father. Doesn’t he make you angry?

He does. He always pushes me to make sure I do everything right, and he never thinks I’m ready for the real world. I’m almost eighteen years old now, can’t he give me a little space?

“Alec, don’t talk to your mother that way.” My father’s voice is a little less soft than my mother’s, but he still sounds concerned for me.

“Leave me alone!” I shout at the both of them. Part of me knows that this behavior is so unlike me, but most of me is boiling in inexplicable anger.

Good. The voice isn’t angry anymore, it’s…chilling. What is it doing there?!

“Who are you?” I whisper to the voice, trying to ignore my parents’ attempts to get into my locked bedroom.

I’m here to help you, Alec. It sends flashes of cold through my entire body with its voice. The voice sounds male, but I can’t be certain.

“Well I don’t need your help.” I feel the harshness on my tongue as I spit the words out at the voice.

Oh, but you do. The screen is out of your window, yes?

How does this voice know that? Is it some part of my brain? Am I going crazy? What’s happening to me?!

Answer the question, Alec.

“Yes, it is.” I don’t know why it wants to know.

Then let’s go. We’ll be back before dawn, don’t worry.

“But…I have school tomorrow.” But even as I say the words I get the feeling that school doesn’t matter. It doesn’t, right? I mean, after I die, what’s the point of school?

Get some black clothes and a ski mask on. Head outside; I’ll direct you from there.

“But I—”

DO IT NOW! The voice screams, practically making my entire body vibrate. I squeeze my head to ease the shooting pain pounding inside of it. I feel like my head is crowded and wrong; like there’s something in there that’s not supposed to be.

It wouldn’t be so painful if you’d just let me take over completely.

No way! What is this thing in my head? Why is it trying to make me sneak out and say bad things to my parents? My anger fades a little and I say, “Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Dad. I just—”

What are you doing?! The voice is furious, slicing my brain apart with hot and cold flashes of blinding pain.

“All right, Alec. Can you let us in?” Dad doesn’t sound angry, so I stand up to unlock my door when the presence attacks with so much pain that I collapse with a yell.

“Are you all right?!” Mom sounds so worried, and I’m close enough to the door that I can reach up and unlock it.

Mom bends down next to me. “Alec?”

“Sorry, just…bad headache.” I try a weak smile, and then feel an inexplicable urge to hit her as hard as I can. My fist involuntarily clenches and rises slowly, but I fight as hard as I can and it lowers again. Take that, voice in my head. I can beat you.

Not for long.

“I’m gonna go back to bed, okay?” I stand up and hug my mom. “Night. Love you.”

She hesitantly hugs back. “Love you too, Alec. Get some sleep.”

The moment my parents leave, the voice explodes, Stupid boy! You’ll listen to me soon enough!

“What are you, some sort of alien?”

By your definition. The voice hisses.

“Can you go back to where you came?”

The presence makes my head throb and I bury my scream in my pillow. “Stop that!”

If you’d just stop fighting me, we wouldn’t have this problem.

What am I fighting? And how?

Whatever. This is stupid, I’m obviously just dreaming or imagining this. I’ll go back to sleep and this will all be better in the morning.

Whatever you say. The voice sounds amused.


My head throbs with the worst migraine I’ve ever had when I wake up. I feel moody and just plain angry as I wash my hair carefully to avoid hurting my head more than necessary, and pull on a plain t-shirt and jeans.

Slumping downstairs, my appetite feels much smaller than usual. I can barely force a spoonful of cereal down my throat before I’m full.

“You feeling okay?” Mom asks as I pull on my black sweatshirt to avoid the December chill.

I roll my eyes where she can’t see me. Can’t she see I’m fine? “Yeah.” I answer shortly, wishing she’d just leave me alone for once.

“Well head off to school, then.” She kisses my forehead and I resist the urge to shove her away as hard as I can. Stalking to my car, I wonder why I’m bothering. I’m a senior now, seniors have a little leeway to miss once in a while. I don’t want to waste my time in that stupid place, anyway.

Now, listen to me. The voice is back!

“Go away.” I groan, starting my car and pulling out of the driveway.

No. Go down this road and turn left.

“How do you know where you’re going? You’re an alien.” As I say it, it sounds ridiculous, and I roll my eyes, annoyed with this stupid situation. I turn right when the voice told me to turn left.

No, we’re skipping school today. The voice sends waves of horrible pain through my head so strong, I yell and jerk the wheel a little.

Turn around! Head to the bank!

“No!”

Yes!

“No!”

Do it now!

Suddenly, I flip a U-turn without meaning to. It’s like my arms just flipped the wheel without my consent.

The bank might have to wait until I can have a little more control. Just relax and I’ll take us where we need to go.

I want to fight. I know it’s this stupid parasite that’s putting me in this bad mood. But I’m just sick of this headache and this stupid mood where every little movement from anybody makes me want to punch them.

“Fine.” I sigh, relaxing a little and letting my arms move without really thinking about where I’m going.

Good.

I return to my senses when I pull into a pawn shop. Then there’s a small moment of that blinding white light and then next thing I know I’m back in my car holding a small handgun.

I drop the gun onto the passenger seat. “How did that happen?” I try to shout, but the words barely escape my mouth.

You finally let me take over for a bit. The voice sounds smug, and jabbing pains make me down as many pills as I can without overdosing. “Seriously, is there anything I can do to get rid of this stupid headache you’re causing me?” This is the most annoyed I’ve ever felt. I would just want to slam my head against the steering wheel if it wouldn’t hurt so badly.

Just let me take over.

“Yeah, but then what would happen to me?”

You’d cease to exist.

“You mean I’d die?”

Your soul would. I’d take over your body.

“Well as wonderful as that sounds, I’ll take the headache over death.”

The rest of the day is hazy. The parasite doesn’t make me do anything else that I can remember, and I’m home at almost the exact same time I would have been if I’d gone to school. Mom and Dad are gone, and I down more pills because the ones I took earlier didn’t put a dent in this headache.

“Could you just leave me alone while I do homework?”

No.

I press my forehead to my desk and groan. My head is killing me, I’m so tired, and I am still adjusting to the fact that I have a parasite living inside of me that wants to kill me! Before I know it, a strange mix of white light and darkness take over. I think I’m sleeping, but I can feel myself moving from some far away corner of my mind. It must be a dream. Starting my car, parking in a gas station.

Just as I pull my new handgun on a cashier, I realize this isn’t a dream. “Stop!” I yell, then cringe with the pain I bring myself.

Get out, boy! The voice screams at me. Get out NOW!

“No!” I shout back, trying to regain control of the hand that is aiming the gun.

The cashier looks confused, but too scared to question me. He must think I’m crazy.

GET OUT OF HERE!

I scream in pain and feel the ground hit my shoulder hard. The gun clatters out of my hand and I realize that I’m wearing black gloves and a black ski mask. I reach to pull the mask off, but my hand involuntarily shoots back to the gun.

You idiot! Do you want to go to jail?!

“But I didn’t do anything!” my shout is weak. I can feel control slipping.

What? You’re going to tell the cops that you were possessed? Good luck. Now let me use my legs!

“They’re my legs!”

Not for long, Alec. Get to your car, there should be an alternate license plate in the backseat.

This is all sounding so very scary and unreal that I don’t want to deal with it. I’m an A student, I play baseball and I do extracurriculars! This whole situation is just so wrong that I can’t believe it’s happening! Was this parasite going to make me shoot the cashier?!

You wouldn’t have to deal with it if you’d just let me take over! My head throbs and I close my eyes as I suddenly spring to my feet and sprint out of the gas station with the gun.

Well at least we got the money. The voice sounds angry with me as I start the car and it takes over, steering the car down roads I’ve never seen before. I don’t know how long it’s been dark, but it’s long past dusk. The time on my dashboard reads 11:43 pm. Where did the last nine hours go?!

“Why are you doing this?!” I shout at the parasite, tears stinging my eyes. I just want to be done!

It’s my sole purpose in life, to cause pain and suffering. If you’d just let me do my job, I wouldn’t be so angry!

“That’s a dumb job!” my comebacks should be snappier, but I’m not myself. Gosh, how have my parents reacted to my disappearance?

You hate your parents! The voice sounds like it’s trying to force me.

“No!” it’s the only word I can manage before that blinding white light takes over again.

This time, I wake up to a scene that I couldn’t imagine waking up to. My gloved hands are sticky against the steering wheel, my clothes are covered in blood. The gun is gone.

“What did you do?!” I scream at the parasite, making my head throb so badly that tears sting my eyes.

You just got done killing four people.

“What?!” I scream. “No! No! No!” I pull the car over and grab my head, trying to force it out of me. “Get out of my head! GET! OUT! NOW! What have you done?! Why are you doing this to me?!” I feel a rush of nausea and throw my seatbelt off so I can get out of my car to puke on the side of the road.

I’ve been in full possession of you for three days now, Alec. The voice sounds annoyed that I came back. In that time, you’ve killed sixteen people. You lost the gun yesterday, and you’ve used a knife since then.

“NO!” I scream, vomiting again with tears streaming down my face. “Why did you do this?! What did I ever do to you?!”

You did nothing. My mission is to cause pain and suffering. I choose my victims carefully, and you’re the most important one, because you get the biggest share of the suffering.

“Of course I do!” I rip the gloves off my hands and puke again when I see the dark red blood staining them. “Sixteen people…” I moan.

All with loving families and lots of close friends. The voice sounds smug. Most under the age of nineteen.

This is the worst thing I could possibly imagine. I’ve turned into a monster!

The police are hot on your tail. The voice warns.

“No.” I say dryly. I’m just empty. Hollow. There’s nothing, nothing I can do to fix what I’ve done. I can never make amends to the people I’ve hurt, the hundreds of lives I’ve ruined.

They’re going to catch you! The voice yells as flashing blue and red lights shine in the distance. Get up, drive on that dirt road there.

I don’t move. Sobs start to shake my shoulders and I’m drowning in a black pool of misery.

GET UP! The voice stabs a hot knife of pain into my head. They’re going to catch you!

I stand up slowly, then shake my head. “No,” I whisper. There’s a way out. I can get out of this horrible mess. “They’re going to catch you.”

I close my eyes and force myself out, make a hole in my consciousness for the parasite to slip into. Blinding whiteness starts to shield the darkness of my eyelids and I fall to the ground. I won’t come back. I’ll go wherever a broken, miserable soul like mine goes after it’s killed by an alien that wants to cause pain and suffering. The alien can have my bloodstained, murderous body. I don’t want it anymore.