The beep of the machines became a shockingly loud alarm that pulled my attention away from my reflection and across to the door of the hospital room as a nurse burst through.
She stared at me, eyes wide open and mouth agape as I frowned back, wondering at the commotion.
I threw aside the covers and swung my legs over the side of the bed, then yelped as something pulled painfully between my legs. Wires sprang free from the sticky pads holding them to my skin and yet more machines began to screech their alarm.
"Stop!" the nurse yelled, rushing forward and pushing me back down on the bed. "You'll pull your catheter out."
Why the hell did I have a catheter in?
No answer to that without asking and all of a sudden, the nurse was too busy to be bothered by questions as she yelled for a doctor and more help. Then, the room filled with people all prodding and poking at me.
At least they turned the bloody alarms off.
There was a tall woman, hair swept back from her face and wearing square glasses and blue scrubs. She spoke with authority, and everyone danced to her tune, so I figured her to be the doctor. She shone a pen light in my eyes as I winced and tried to look away.
"The hell are you doing?"
"Chloe, look at me." Her fingers gripped my chin and forced me to face her. "Do you know where you are?"
"Hospital." I muttered. "Lucky guess."
"Yes, good." She nodded. Her ID named her, Dr. Beyer. "Do you remember how you came to be here?"
Not a bloody clue. Though I wasn't sure how much I should be admitting right then, so I just shook my head, trying to get a feel for what the hell had happened.
Other than Orryn screwing me.
"You don't remember the accident?"
"Evidently not," I muttered, scowling as I was pushed back down against the mattress. "What the fuck's going on?"
The doctor and nurse exchanged a look before Beyer returned her attention to me. "You were in an accident, Chloe."
Chloe? That was the name of whoever's body I was wearing. Definitely a girl, as if the breasts weren't proof enough of that.
Bugger.
"I need to get out of here."
"Not yet," Nurse Allen said, gently rubbing my arm in what I guessed was supposed to be a comforting manner. "You've just woken up."
"How long?" A reasonable question I figured.
"Six weeks." Beyer noted something on my chart and glanced at the readings on the machine that was beeping steadily. "There'll be some muscle wastage, so you'll need some rehabilitation." She glanced down at me and smiled reassuringly. "You'll be fine."
That was highly doubtful.
I was a girl.
Or at least I was in a girl's body.
Bloody Orryn.
My tongue darted out, wetting dry and cracked lips. "W-where am I?"
"Leeds General Infirmary," Beyer said. "Don't worry. We'll answer all your questions, and your parents have been called."
"How do…" I trailed off as I realised, they didn't mean my parents, but Chloe's.
Crap.
That was something I really didn't want to deal with. I needed out of the hospital and fast.
"I need these wires off," I muttered, reaching for them only for my wrists to be caught in the vice like grip of Nurse Allen.
"We need you to keep these wires in place," she said. "Your body has been through a lot, and we need to make sure it's working okay."
I shifted in her grasp but there was no chance of pulling out of her grip, which left me feeling weak and very vulnerable. A feeling I was not used to at all.
"P-please," I said, ashamed of the tears shimmering in my eyes. Why the hell was I about to cry? "I just need to get out of here."
"Sorry." Her smile was full of compassion, but she wasn't about to give in and let me out of bed.
With nothing else to do, I lay in the bed and let them do their tests. I answered their questions as best I could, and I was compliant when they drew my blood. All the while, my mind was working overtime.
Why had Orryn put me into Chloe's body?
Malice? Was it an accident or by design? Was there a purpose?
If so, then I needed to know what it was. I needed to speak to him.
I just didn't know how.
One thing was for sure; I needed to be alone to try and figure that out and the best way to do that was to play nice.
So, I stared sullenly at the ceiling until they finished their work and one by one, they filtered out until it was just me and the nurse who had first found me awake.
"You must be starving. It's a while till dinner, but I can make you some toast and bring you something to drink?"
"Sure, that would be great. Thank you."
I smiled sweetly and waited until she was gone, the door to the private room closing behind her. Then I threw off the sheets.
There were tubes sticking out from beneath the linen gown I wore, and my mind shied away from investigating where those tubes went. Despite all that laughter filled lecherous talk while drunk or high when someone asked the question of what you would do if you were suddenly a girl.
The reality was vastly different.
I felt wrong.
This body felt wrong.
Small hands and feet, a weight on my chest that shifted when I moved and the way my knees pressed together naturally.
I had no desire to look beneath the gown and see what was missing. I wasn't sure I could even do that without going into full-blown meltdown.
I was a girl!
"Orryn, you prick, what the fuck did you do to me?"
"Returned you to life, as promised."
The voice was distant, tinny even, as though coming from some far-off place and I cast around, looking for him.
Nothing.
"Where the hell are you?"
"Closer than that." There was no mistaking the humour in that voice, and I scowled in the direction it came from.
There, a faint reflection in the glass pane of the window, standing looking over my shoulder and as ethereal as I had been just a short time ago, stood Orryn.
Or rather loomed.
His face split in a grin as he caught my eye. "How do you like your new body?"
"You screwed me!" I snapped. "I thought you were putting me back in my body."
"Why would I do that?" He snickered softly. "Easier by far to use a body vacant but unbroken."
"That wasn't the deal!"
"Oh, dear foolish boy. You never specified. You simply accepted the deal offered."
He had me there. I'd been over a barrel, and he'd taken full advantage of that.
Bastard.
"I want out."
A long finger tapped his lips as he considered and then he tilted his head to the side and smiled. "No."
"What do you mean, 'no'," I snapped back at him. "You can't force me to-"
The skin on my arms prickled, goosebumps forming as the temperature dropped abruptly and I shivered, my breath misting the air. I pulled the blankets back over my legs and held them up to my chest.
For warmth, I told myself, and not for the fragile protection they afforded me.
"You do not demand." The words were soft, but unmistakably a warning. "A bargain was made. A bargain upheld. You will remain."
"Why?" I asked, voice imploring.
"A parent traded a favour for their daughter's return."
I turned that over in my mind, brow furrowed as I shook my head. "But, I'm not their daughter."
"Betrayal," Orryn hissed. "Her soul was hidden, beyond my reach. But the bargain had been made and needed to be kept."
That… made a kind of sense, and it gave me some insight into Orryn's whole deal. He needed a soul for a body, and I needed a body for my soul. A useful convergence that allowed him to keep his bargain.
"You have a boss," I said, understanding. "You couldn't break the bargain you made."
I'd scored a hit and the flash of irritation across his almost human face was evidence enough of that.
"We must all follow rules."
"So, how do I get out of this? I want my body back."
I had promises of my own to keep and family that needed me.
"The bargain must be maintained," Orryn insisted. "Be the dutiful daughter."
My eyes closed as I exhaled a soft sigh.
"That's not fair."
"Fair?" His laughter was soft and hollow. "Whatever made you think Hell deals in fairness."
"And," I said, eyes snapping open as I glared my defiance back at him. "What if I don't? What if I told her parents who I am, that your deal wasn't kept?"
There was no outburst, nor sudden chill to the air like last time. Instead, he simply looked at me, a smile playing on his lips as though he knew something I didn't and that scared me.
I didn't know why, but it did.
"By all means, Daniel. Try to do so."
There was a threat implicit there and I had a very sudden urge to tell him I would do no such thing, but my own stubbornness won out, and I just glared sullenly at him.
"Fine," I managed through gritted teeth. "I'll play the part."
Until I could figure a way out of it at least.
"Good girl," Orryn whispered mockingly as his image faded from the reflection, and I was left all alone once more.
Prick.
He'd screwed me for sure, and I had no idea what to do next.
Tears rolled down my cheeks as my body began to shake and I curled up, wrapping my arms around my legs as I cried. Something I hadn't done since I was a little boy.
I didn't know why I was doing it right then. I'd not cried when dad left, or when I took the beating meant for mum. So why cry now? Because I had boobs?
Ridiculous.
But I didn't stop.
Everything was different.
I'd been six feet tall and regularly lifting weights at the gym with my mates before I'd died. Even at eighteen, I'd been confident and calm in a crisis and able to kick the ass of anyone who had tried to square up to me.
Now…
Chloe was barely five-six, by my best estimation and maybe sixty kilos. So, short and slight and very, very, vulnerable.
Which scared me.
I wanted out of this body and back into my own but had no idea how that could happen other than by dying and making another deal. But odds were, that death would just result in me becoming that giant hounds chew toy as it dragged me to hell.
And I didn't even know why I was headed there anyway!
It was all so unfair.
I sniffed and wiped at my eyes as I rolled over and pushed myself back to a sitting position.
Yes.
Unfair.
But so was dying in a car wreck two weeks before I turned nineteen. Leaving my sister alone, and very much more vulnerable than I currently was.
Yes, life might be unfair, but I was alive. I wiped away the last of my tears and set my jaw defiantly.
I was alive and that meant I could still help my sister.
All I had to do was learn how to be a girl.
Or, more to the point, how to be Chloe.
Before her parents arrived.