Transposed Essence

Prompt: As afternoon sunlight fought its way through the overcast sky, casting crooked shadows over an empty avenue, sixteen-year-old Alex was making his way home from school. The usually lively street was oddly deserted except for a peculiar pair of figures in the distance, meandering and faltering, their shadows swaying ominously onto the weatherworn pavement. Through drawn-out steps and squinted eyes, curiosity led Alex towards the spectacle. Each stride narrowing the distance revealed the figures to be a woman and a child. The woman cut an unsettling figure. Her gait a distinctive falter from a clubfoot, an irregular rocking motion ensnared her every few steps as if she was treading water rather than the worn pavement. Spittle gathered at the corners of her mouth, dribbling down, touched only by the whim of gravity, marred the rigidity of her visage. An incongruous expression of serenity and desperation painted her face, a tic twitching her cheek periodically. Her eyes, jaw-droppingly fixed upwards, exhibited only sclera so white it seemed almost ethereal, the pupils completely vanished from sight. Consuming horror rendered her countenance a grotesque stoic mask, denying reality with sublime denial. Frail, tiny fingers tightly clung to the ragged hem of the woman's T-shirt. A child, hardly nine, whimpered softly, her dainty face quivering with fear and confusion. The distraught cries served as a punctuated metronome against the woman's steady hobble. Tears glistening in her eyes told a heartbreaking tale, providing an antithesis to her unknowing innocence. As Alex came within arm's reach of the pair, an unseen force lured him in. His adolescent curiosity compelled him to ask, "Are you okay, ma'am?" His voice, usually steady, wavered in the presence of the unknown. Before he could register her reaction fully, a grip of iron clasped his shoulders. Petrified, he stared into the woman's raised eyes, void of pupils, now flashing with a demonic red glow. A feeling of dread came over him, not from the frightful sight of the woman or her strange behaviour, but from an overriding sensation of unease creeping within his nerves. A brilliant flash of crimson pierced his vision, filling his mind with unimaginable terror. The intensity was such that the world around him seemed to wane, succumbing to the encroaching darkness.  His conscious thoughts vanished, his surroundings blurred until he sank helplessly into the comfortable abyss of unconsciousness. The last thing he remembered before the darkness took him was the fiery hue that illuminated the depths where her pupils should have been. As the eerie red glow dissipated, there was a brief interlude of silence. It was as if time was holding its breath, the world around Alex suspended in an uncanny stillness. An ethereal whisper danced on unsuspecting breezes, as the air pulsed with an ominous energy. The woman’s body became porous, a mere spectral shell as a visible dark entity separated itself. Like a tangled masterpiece of shadow and malevolence, the entity surged forward, diffusing into a smoky fog, its silhouette convulsed and writhed. It moved towards Alex with a disturbing elegance, its form being compelled by some invisible gravitational force. His body, as if awaiting the sinister presence, responded in kind, the entity seeping its way into his pores, traces of its inky shadow engulfing his being. The demon delved into the profound depths of Alex, a foreign invader courting uncharted territories, sending shivers down his spine. His flesh acted as a feeble protest, goosebumps tracing his skin as the harsh jolt of possession took hold. Alex’s consciousness resisted this violation, attempting a futile fight against the darkness that was claiming him. Unseen, unheard, the exchange was complete—the demon resided within Alex, and Alex, astonishingly, occupied the shell left behind by a desperate soul. His senses plunged from the rapid transmigration: his body dropping, landing hard onto the unyielding pavement. A final flurry of sensory information filtered through his consciousness before he surrendered to the snaking tendrils of oblivion. The frail hands of the child continued their desperate endeavour against inert skin, her whimpering pleas for 'mother' filling the silent street. Minutes passed like an eternity until Alex's consciousness reawakened, now cabined in the confines of a new form. The world felt skewed with the sharp edges of his femininity. He noted the molded contours of skinny jeans biting into his flesh, the alien sensations of a figure-hugging T-shirt, its fabric catching unfamiliar body curves. The feeling of women's undergarments sent unsettling signals to his disoriented consciousness. Describe how Alex then tried to stand up, but the unfamiliar body did not obey him. It took him some time to learn the basic movements. He then calmed the crying girl, who was now his daughter. Then Alex asked her where "that boy" went, meaning himself, and taking the girl by the hand went to look for his body. Having never found him, he despaired and tried to find out where this woman lives.