Sunday Bonus: Runaway

by Erick S.

“You good, man?” asked a burly, bearded dude in a construction outfit. I guessed he was one of my coworkers.

“Good to go,” I said with a thumbs up.

“Where ya been?” he asked.

“Smoke break,” I said, taking one good last inhale of the cigarette in my mouth before tossing it down to the ground and stomping it out with a heavy boot. The nicotine felt great as it hit my veins. First time being a smoker. This body handled it with ease.

“Yeah? Been gone a while, you know. Boss was askin’ about you.”

“What?” I said. My voice had some sort of an accent to it. Boston, maybe? “Can’t a guy take a smoke break around here?”

I did my best to lay low the rest of the shift, just to be safe. This body had quite a lot of strength to it. Those big arms weren’t just for show. I couldn’t wait to get home and check the rest of the package out.

This was the third body I’d been in since I ran away from home. I was able to hold myself in each body a little bit longer every time. I had a feeling this guy, with his sturdy, muscular build would give me a lot more to hold onto. A lot more for me to absorb myself into. My goal was to try and stay inside of him for a full week. I was able to stay almost five days in the last guy I was in before I started feeling myself pull out. If I ever really wanted to get out of here, really run away and start a new life for myself, I’d have to find a way to hold onto a body much longer than that. Until then, I was really just hiding out in one body after the next.

“Hey, Danny,” a guy called out behind me. The same bearded dude from earlier, “Time to punch out, huh? You sure you’re good? Been quiet all day. Don’t seem like yourself.”

“Yeah,” I said with a smirk, “Not myself. I guess you could say that.”