You Had Me at Halo(14)

“Who are you?” Holly croaked as she clutched at her throat. It almost sounded like the words were coming from inside her. But that was just impossible.

“I’m Vince, who are you? And more importantly, what the hell are you doing in my body?”

“What do you mean you’re Vince? Vince is dead,” Holly said into the thin air, feeling more than just a little bit silly (and considering the past two weeks, that was really saying something).

“I’m dead?” the voice sounded surprised. “Are you sure? Because I don’t feel dead. Perhaps I’m just having some sort of weird dream? I get them sometimes.”

“No, you’re definitely dead.”

“Oh, so this is heaven? Because I’ve got to say, I expected more. This place looks like the bus stop outside Baker Colwell.”

“Of course it’s not heaven,” Holly scoffed. For a start there were no dead people around. Sort of a give away. Though she still wasn’t quite sure why she was having a conversation with Vince’s body.

“So it’s hell then?” the voice continued to probe. Was Vince’s body always this annoying in a conversation?

“No,” she explained. “It looks like the bus stop outside Baker Colwell because it is the bus stop outside Baker Colwell.”

“Right. So how did I get from the funeral to here?”

Wait. This was getting ridiculous. Surely she wasn’t really having this conversation. Perhaps if she closed her eyes, the voice would go away?

The problem was, not only did the voice make her feel weird, but something strange was happening to her leg as well. It felt...twitchy.

An uneasy feeling lodged itself in her stomach, which she tried to ignore. Surely this was just a side effect from Dr. Hill’s plan and no doubt if she’d read the rulebook she would know all about strange voices and twitchy feelings in her leg.

She gave her thigh a wriggle.

“Hey,” the voice said. “How did you do that?”

Holly started to sing the latest Coldplay song in her head. It had only come out a week before she died so she didn’t know all the words but at least it would stop this voice from talking.

Then her other leg wriggled. All by itself.

Holly stopped singing and clutched at her thigh. And now spasms? This was so not her day. “What’s going on?” she croaked as she found herself sitting back down on the bench.

“That’s what I want to know,” the voice said. “One minute I was at Holly’s funeral and the next minute I’m at the bus stop outside Baker Colwell. It doesn’t make sense. And why can I taste lipstick on my mouth?”

Holly felt her hand reach up to her lips and gulped as a thought too startling and dreadful for words entered her head.

No.

It wasn’t possible.

It couldn’t be happening.

“Actually it is,” another voice said and for a moment Holly clutched at her head.

“Don’t tell me there’s someone else inside here too, because I don’t think I’m going to handle it very well,” she said.

“Of course not.” Dr. Hill appeared from nowhere and sat next to her at the bus stop. “I’m right here.”

Holly let out a sigh of relief. “Boy, am I glad to see you. You won’t believe what’s just happened. For a moment I was starting to think Vince Murphy was still alive and in my body.”

Her leg shot out from under her and there was a growling noise from her throat. “Actually I think you’ll find it’s my body. And can someone please tell me what’s going on?”

“Of course.” The doctor gave a small cough. “It’s quite simple. Miss Evans, it appears that Mr. Murphy is in his body with you. At first it wasn’t obvious because he was in a catatonic state, which made us think he was dead, but well...the good news is he’s all better.”

“And the bad news?” Holly could now feel the disbelief oozing out of every pore in her body. Oh no, wait. Make that Vince Murphy’s body.

“I don’t think you’re going to like the bad news.” Dr. Hill let out a sigh as he started to explain what had happened.





CHAPTER SIX


“What do you mean you’ve stuck me in the body of someone who was only nearly dead?” Holly wasn’t sure whether to laugh or burst out in hysterical tears. “How is this possible?”

Vince coughed. “Actually, I know the answer to that. I think I fainted.”

“You fainted?” Holly echoed as she turned to Dr. Hill in disbelief. “So Vince isn’t sick at all and this whole mess is because my spiritual realigner couldn’t tell the difference between a faint and a death?”

Dr. Hill was now fiddling with the fancy cuffs at the end of his white shirt. “Okay.” He suddenly threw his hands up in the air. “I admit it. I made one tiny little mistake. It could’ve happened to anyone.”

Holly could only stare at him. “I’m sorry, I’ve being trying to stay calm about this whole thing, but it’s not working. Don’t you think it’s hard enough for me to have come down here for two days to try and sort out all of my earthly issues while stuck in a guy’s body, without now telling me I have to share the body with the guy.”

“I think we’re forgetting who’s the victim here. I fainted for what—a second or two—and wham, my body gets snatched.”