Getting used to a new body is never fun.

            Getting used to a new body while someone is trying to shoot you in the head is even less fun. But at least the Caster is down and out, so it’s one less thing to deal with on this fine evening.

            The whole world seems magical after getting out of that fucking bottle the Caster so unkindly stuffed me into. Does he not understand who I am? Does he not know that I, Andras, will not suffer this fate? Either way, it’s quite rude to stuff someone into a bottle without even asking for their name first.

            Smoothly sliding into a living body is rather troublesome. Entering the dead body of a Caster is even more so. You see, Casters keep a barrier around their body so that they will never be possessed. And one should not be able to possess a recently deceased body. Even at my level, I’ve never been able to break through a Caster’s barrier, let alone possess one. But now that I’ve slipped into this rather convenient body left by the wayside just for me, I realize how nice it fits.

            The issue is that the body is accustomed to light magic, not the sudden intrusion of my dark magic.

            “Peekaboo!” the man says as he pops his head over the counter and aims a gun at me.

            “How rude!” I declare, but because I haven’t quite gotten the hang of this body, it comes out much more like “Howwrud.” Not my finest speech ever given, but definitely not my worst!

            The man seems rather confused as he looks at me, then the shattered bottle on the ground and back at me. His uptake of the situation is thankfully quite slow as I roll and proceed to fall onto my face. Feeling is creeping into my fingers and this time, when I put my hands beneath me, they hold me up off the rather disgusting floor.

            Now I’m wallowing around on top of the unconscious Caster, which is definitely not my intention as I roll, twist, and scramble forward until I get stuck on something.

            Tugging a bit, I realize it’s the Caster’s sword, and since he seems to be preoccupied taking a nap, I decide that maybe I wouldn’t mind brandishing it.

            I bet I’d look cool.

            With a push and a shove, I spring to my feet and hold the sword at the ready before promptly falling forward and poking myself in the leg with the sword that seems too heavy for these arms I’m not quite accustomed to.

            “Hell, man. My leg!” I yell, and I feel quite pleased when it sounds like English instead of unintelligible mumbles.

            The man watching the ordeal finds this horribly hilarious, and the only choice left is to murder him as soon as I can figure this out.

            “You dare laugh at me? You will die, you lowly scum. You’re like the gum on the bottom of my shoe. The bird shit on my windshield. I will—”

            He aims his gun at me, so I grab the Caster and use his limp and useless body as a shield. I mean… really, why wouldn’t I use him as a glorified bullet sponge? The shade clearly doesn’t want that as he growls and tries aiming for the exposed parts of my body. Who knows why he’s decided to target me, but I think maybe it’s because I’m currently the bigger threat.

            So I fling the Caster’s limp body at the man, knocking him back as I spring up to my feet and brandish the sword again then proceed to use it as a walking stick as I make my wobbly way over to the man.

            The issue with my grand walking stick plan is that now I don’t have a sword to stab him with.

            Slowly, ever so slowly, I’m starting to get a better handle on this body enough that when the evil guy shoves the human back, I catch him. Then as I heave up the sword, the killer trips over the Caster’s legs and falls forward, piercing himself on the weapon. Since the shade can’t use the body of a dead man, he’s thrown out and the body drops to the floor. I shake the blood off the blade, then use the body’s clothes to clean it up a bit before turning my attention to the fleeing shade.

            I hold out my hand as the shade tries his best to leave, but I don’t know where he thinks he’ll simply disappear to when I’m hungry.

            Outside the body that offered him protection, he seems quite concerned as he flees, but he won’t get far before my magic finds him. Squeezing my hand shut, I watch as black mist seeps through my skin, grabbing onto the shade and pulling him inside for me to feast on.

            Oh, what a useless wee monster.

            But he sure tastes delicious.