Boss

Guest Post by Erick S.

“Ah, fuck,” Jeff thought when his Blackberry lit up not 10 minutes after he had finally gotten into his hotel room for the night. It was an email from his boss.

“Meet in my room. 3409. Something to discuss with you.”

What the fuck could it be at this hour? They’d spent the whole day at this sales meeting, Jeff was exhausted, and the last thing he wanted to do was pick up any more work for the night. He groaned and tightened his tie back up around his neck.

Room 3409 was just down the hallway. Jeff went to knock on the door, but found it propped slightly open. He knocked anyhow.

“Come on in, Jeff,” his boss invited him.

Jeff walked in and saw his boss sitting on the corner of the bed. Even with his expensive, top-end jacket tossed over a chair in the corner, even with his sleeves rolled up and his tie loosened, even in the dim light of the hotel room, Andy Conklin still radiated with a sense of power and confidence. He was the kind of man who never had any problems sealing the deal. A natural-born sales executive.

“You, um, wanted to see me?” Jeff stuttered. It was strange for him to see his boss in such a casual setting.

“Jeff,” he started out, “I just wanted to congratulate you on your presentation today. Didn’t get the chance to do it this afternoon, since I had to head into that call with corporate right afterwards.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jeff said, feeling a knot growing in his throat and beads of sweat starting to collect on his forehead.

“I like to recognize the rising stars on my sales team,” he continued, purposefully standing up, “And I think you’ve really got what it takes to make it around here. Thought I might get the chance to know some more about you, if you’re all caught up on your work for the night.”

Jeff had a ton of shit to do to prep for tomorrow, but he couldn’t seem to move from where he was standing, or make any sort of response at all, really.

“Come from a good family?” his boss went on, not even phased by Jeff’s obvious uneasiness, “Your father is quite the salesman himself, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Yes, sir,” Jeff stammered. It was true, his father had been very successful.

“Must be pretty proud to see you following in his footsteps,” he said.

He was now standing inches away from Jeff, his eyes intensely focused like the King of the Jungle on a hunt. Jeff had to look up at him a little bit to meet his gaze. He didn’t know what to feel. Intimidated? Or something else, as he felt himself start to stiffen under his business slacks.

“Yes,” was all that he could say.

He felt his boss starting to lean in towards him. His heart was racing. He wanted this, he’d wanted it since the very first time he’d met Andy Conklin at the holiday party right after he’d been hired last year. And how many times since then had he fantasized about a moment exactly like this? He forced himself to swallow the knot in his throat as he closed his eyes and felt himself starting to lean in, too.

And then suddenly, the expression on his boss’ face completely changed. The intense, sultry, masculine gaze was replaced with a harsh, too-wide grin. A grin like Jeff had never seen on that face before.

“You dumb fuck!” his boss said, only it wasn’t his boss’ voice. It was another voice. A familiar voice. Jeff jumped back towards the door. Somehow it had been latched closed now. When had that happened?

He found himself suddenly being grasped by his shoulders and pulled in against his boss' solid body. He wanted to pull away, but he felt sick and light-headed. He had pins and needles all over his body. Had he felt something prick him on his arm?

“What -- Stop --” Jeff mumbled, but he was losing control of himself rapidly.

Things were blurry now, but Jeff couldn’t mistake when he saw his boss reach up and pull his face off like a mask -- And he couldn’t mistake the face that he saw underneath. His brother, Alan.

“God, Jeff, you are such a dumb fuck,” Alan said with Andy Conklin’s crumpled-up face now gripped in his hands,  “Thinking your boss would come on to you like that. Dad sure as hell wasted his money sending you to that fancy business school.”

Jeff struggled to hang on to anything. Struggled to make sense of what was happening. That was his boss’ body, but on top of it was his brother’s head and face.

“Well you always were Mom and Dad’s favorite,” Alan continued, “Followed right in ol’ Pops’ footsteps, while they couldn’t have given a fuck about me. Did you know, Jeff, that I’ve been starving for the past month? Literally starving. They didn’t set me up with the cushy life they set you up with. Did you know that? ‘Course you didn’t. ‘Cuz none of you have fuckin’ bothered to reach out to me in the past, what, five years? Is that how long it’s been?”

“Alan --” Jeff tried to say, but his mouth was dry and his voice was weak.

“Anyhow,” Alan said, leading Jeff over to the bed and laying him down, “You see this?”

He held up the Andy Conklin mask and stretched it out so Jeff could see.

“This is what’s about to become of you,” Alan said with a satisfied smirk, “It’s going to feel so great putting you on, Jeff. Wearing you, becoming you, going home to Mom and Dad and having them think that I’m you.”

Alan started to take off the clothes that he had been wearing as Andy Conklin. And when he was completely naked, he started to remove the rest of Andy Conklin’s body, stripping it off just like it was another layer of clothing. He laid everything carefully out on the bed right next to Jeff.

“Don’t worry about your ol’ boss here” said Alan, “In a couple hours he’ll be back to his old self, probably with one hell of a headache and not a whole lot of memories from tonight.”

For Jeff, the world was now reeling around him. He couldn’t tell at this point what was real and what wasn’t. He felt himself slipping away. He managed to look down at himself and was horrified to see his chest literally caving in as he felt emptier and emptier inside.

“Alan --” he whispered.

“Sorry, Jeff,” Alan said with absolutely zero sympathy, "It's just a matter of time now."

Soon, Jeff was completely emptied out, and Alan was quick to go about his work. Already nude, he slipped right into his brother’s body. He shifted and twisted around inside of his new skin. Of course he’d worn other bodies before, but being inside of his own brother’s body made him feel something different. This is what he had been working up to.

Only once he had squeezed himself completely inside did he saunter into the bathroom and look into the mirror. His brother had a great body. With his lifestyle, he had the luxury of working out at high-end health clubs simply for leisure and for sculpting six-pack abs. He adjusted his brother’s face over his own. They looked remarkably similar to each other, actually. They were only a year apart in age. When they were growing up, they were always mistaken as twins. He cleared his throat and spoke with his brother’s voice.

“I’m Jeff Mansfield,” he practiced, “Jeff. Mansfield.”

He smiled, satisfied with the results. He knew, though, that he needed to sleep now. He would need at least six hours to absorb all of Jeff’s memories.

“And when I wake up tomorrow morning,” Alan said to his reflection with a gleam in his eyes, “I’m going to be totally you.”