The person who had taken over his body—whoever it was—might not even have been human. It was too singularly driven by one desire: lust.
It wasn’t just that it had no self-control—it was that it didn’t even limit its appetites to one person. It touched many. Some of those people were ones it never should have touched, and in the process, it had hurt countless others.
Then, one day, it died. At Alexander’s hands.
Honestly, it deserved to die. The surprising thing was that it hadn’t happened sooner. Kalix had assumed one of its many bed partners would have killed it eventually, but the fact that the one who finally did wasn’t even one of them was almost ironic. That thing had certainly known how to pick its playthings—ones that were easy to manipulate.
But even after death, it wasn’t over. His body was still not his own. He woke up again, days before he was supposed to enter the Academy—just like before. He had no idea why his body had been returned to him, just as he hadn’t understood why it had been stolen in the first place. Which meant he had no way of knowing when—or if—it would happen again. The first time, he had simply gone to sleep and woken up in someone else’s control. What if that happened again?
Naturally, Kalix hadn’t slept properly since.
As he lay there, half-awake and irritated, he suddenly heard the sound of someone turning the doorknob. His instincts flared in warning—then he realized the door was locked, and only then did a knock follow.
He didn’t know who it was, but somehow, he did.
“What?”
Sure enough, Alexander stood outside. A glance at the clock confirmed it was barely morning. Kalix hadn’t slept well in days, and everything was grating on his nerves. Nothing about this situation was pleasant. He scowled as he asked, and Alexander held out his hand.
“Your clothes.”
“I sent them to laundry.”
“When?”
“After curfew yesterday.”
“Then they should be done by now. Let’s go.”
“Why should I?”
Alexander acted like they were old friends, even though they’d only met yesterday. Kalix glared, but Alexander just gestured toward the inside of the room, pressing a finger to his lips—quiet. Jasper was still asleep, but it was Alexander who had woken Kalix up in the first place. If he didn’t want to wake his own brother, he should have been more careful.
“They won’t give clothes to anyone but the owner. Upperclassmen might bully underclassmen by making them run errands.”
Kalix hadn’t asked, but since Alexander had given him clothes yesterday, he let out a short sigh and closed the door. He started to change out of his sleepwear, but the door swung open again. Stunned, he turned to see Alexander watching him.
“Oh, you are changing. I thought you were ignoring me. Go ahead.”
With that, Alexander stepped back out and shut the door—no apology for barging in. Kalix didn’t bother arguing. This was just how Alexander was. Glancing at Jasper’s bed, he noted that his roommate hadn’t stirred at all. Was everyone in this family this deep a sleeper?
Resigned, Kalix stepped out, only to see Alexander leaning against the doorway, flagging down a passing student. The guy looked exhausted—probably just getting back. Kalix’s gaze followed automatically as Alexander spoke:
“Philip, I borrowed your clothes.”
“Uh… yeah.”
So this was Philip—the guy whose clothes Alexander had taken without permission yesterday. Philip mumbled a response, then hesitated as he passed Alexander, turning back to look at him.
“Today?”
Kalix didn’t care to understand or listen. He just headed toward the laundry room, with Alexander’s voice trailing behind him:
“I’ll pick them up.”
He could feel Alexander following him. The walk to the laundry room was silent. The process of retrieving the clothes was just as quiet. And just like that, as soon as Alexander had the clothes in hand, he was gone—clean break, no fuss.
Yet even that brief interaction left Kalix exhausted. Just being around people felt like it was gnawing at his nerves. He knew—he knew—he could never go back to how things were before. He couldn’t casually socialize, form relationships, or love the people he used to love without a second thought. All the things that had once come so naturally to him were now impossible.
***
Kalix stood on the highest accessible floor, in an empty room, looking down from the balcony. The rooftop was off-limits, so this was as high as he could go. Even if he jumped from here, there was no guarantee he’d die—just a lot of trees and grass below. And even if he did die, what if his body was just taken over again?
If he was going to die, it would have to be after curfew. The first time he’d gone to the lake, he’d chosen a secluded spot, but there was always a risk of being discovered before then. After curfew, though, the chances of being found before he died were slimmer.
But the lake was out of the question now. If he disappeared, they’d search for him, and if Alexander testified that he’d seen Kalix there… Alexander had told him not to die at the Academy, but honestly, there was nowhere on campus where he could die without being found quickly. The problem wasn’t being found dead—it was being found alive with someone else inside him.
He’d have to get off campus. Sneaking out after curfew would give him the most time, but how? He knew the Academy’s layout, but the thing that had stolen his body had never bothered with sneaking out—its playthings had all been inside the Academy.
There had to be a way. As he pondered, his gaze dropped to the ground below—and he spotted someone. Convenient wasn’t the right word. If anything, this was the worst possible timing. Especially since that someone was now climbing a tree toward the balcony diagonally below Kalix’s.
The person must have sensed his gaze, because they suddenly looked up. It was Alexander. Without hesitation, Alexander reached up, grabbed the iron railing of the balcony above, and pulled himself up.
“Did you say hi to Jay?”
He climbed up effortlessly, leaning against the railing of the adjacent balcony like it was nothing. Kalix’s eyes flickered toward him—he looked precariously balanced. Someone that agile probably wouldn’t fall, but if he did, it would be interesting to see how badly he’d get hurt. They were similar in height and build, so it would be a fair comparison.
“Your brother?”
Alexander tilted his head back slightly.
“Yeah.”
He really was going to fall like that. Kalix had suspected it from the first time he’d seen him, but Alexander truly had no fear.
“No.”
Jasper made him uncomfortable. Everyone made him uncomfortable, but the people who had touched his body while it wasn’t his own were the worst. That was why he ignored Jasper completely. Fortunately, Jasper wasn’t the type to push, so for now, things were quiet.
“Is there a reason you have to die at school?”
There wasn’t. But Kalix didn’t feel like explaining himself, so he stayed silent. Alexander continued anyway.
“You haven’t even been here long, Blackwood. You can’t possibly have a grudge against this place.”
Jasper and Alexander were nothing alike. Jasper was always watching people, always reacting to their cues, but Alexander didn’t give a damn what anyone thought. They should have mixed the two of them up a little.
“Clifford, it’s none of your business.”
Alexander didn’t seem bothered.
“What about hunting? After the shooting lessons, they rank students by year and let volunteers go on a hunting practice. Mostly in the forest, but if I remember right, there’s a cliff not too far from here. The professors mark safe zones—which also means if you go outside those zones, it’s dangerous.”
Kalix had already died that way. By Alexander’s hands. Did Alexander always think like this? Planning how to kill someone most effectively?
“Five years ago? Fifteen? There was a senior who snuck in alcohol and died in an accident while drinking. If you did something similar, no one would suspect a thing.”
With that, Alexander looked at him.
“Feel like living a little now?”
An odd question, given the topic. Kalix couldn’t make sense of him—and didn’t want to. He didn’t have the energy.
“Mind your own business.”
Kalix studied Alexander for a moment. The way he leaned precariously over the balcony railing, half-hanging outside—it gave him an idea. If he pushed him now, would he fall? Maybe he’d catch himself. Maybe he wouldn’t.
He reached out and grabbed Alexander’s shoulder. Alexander just looked at him, unfazed, as if this were perfectly normal. No surprise, no tension—just loose, indifferent calm.
Kalix stared at his own hand on Alexander’s shoulder for a moment… then pulled it back. Even if someone else could die, he wouldn’t know. Even if their soul left their body, the shell would just be taken over by someone else—just like his had been. And he didn’t know Alexander well enough to tell if something like that happened.
He turned his back and left the balcony. Alexander didn’t stop him—didn’t even try. As Kalix walked back to his room, he clenched his fist once. The hand that had touched Alexander. There was no particular feeling in it.
He had never wanted to kill anyone before. Before his body was stolen, he was sure of that. Now, things were different—but that didn’t mean he wanted to kill Alexander. Even though Alexander had killed him, back then, he had wanted it. So he held no grudge.
But for just a moment, Kalix had felt the urge to test something. To see if other people could really die. Not out of deep emotion—just curiosity. And in that moment, he realized he wouldn’t have minded killing someone just to find out.
He didn’t know how far he had fallen.
***
The semester started before Kalix could figure out how to sneak out undetected. It was better not to skip classes. Problems could arise in class, but at least during class, nothing unexpected usually happened. The real issues were before and after—but even that was better than wandering around and running into someone falling out of a tree. Or worse, some other unpredictable disaster.
“Hello.”
Kalix turned reflexively at the voice. Jasper was watching him cautiously. Kalix tried not to think about the times his body hadn’t been his own, but being near Jasper made it impossible not to remember.
He and Jasper had grown closer as roommates, sitting together in lectures, and then… that had happened. Kalix still didn’t understand the mentality of someone who slept with a friend, but it had happened.
Normally, they sat together in lectures, but today, Kalix deliberately chose a seat far from Jasper. Jasper was the only person he knew in their year, so he’d probably called out to Kalix out of habit—but Kalix ignored him, finding an empty seat elsewhere.
“Kalix.”
Just as he sat down, he heard his name again. For a second, he wondered if he should have just stuck with Jasper—the known risk—but when he turned, he didn’t recognize the face. It wasn’t someone from the time his body had been stolen. Maybe that made them less of a threat. The discomfort eased slightly.
“Owen. Remember me? Our brothers are friends. We went to the villa and swam together—when were we, eight? No, ten? Remember the rabbit hunt? Our brothers said we had to chase them, but we thought it was cruel, so they just gave us the cages. You didn’t take yours, so I took both.”
“I did take one.”
Kalix had spent so much time fixating on the period when his body wasn’t his own—the past and future blurred together in his mind—that remembering anything from before that felt strange. Unfamiliar. Like something that had happened to someone else.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
