Everlost (Skinjacker 1)

—numbers lottery numbers why did i just stand up?— Okay, thought Allie. This was something new. It was clear that the man still had no idea she was there, and he couldn’t tell the difference between her thoughts and his own, Allie tried to take advantage of that.

“Go to the upper deck,” Allie said. “You always take your break down below, and you never enjoy the view.”

—it’s too hot down here anyway, i should go on deck—the man thought.

Allie felt the strange, numb sensation of fabric against skin as he rose and climbed the stairs. The cold of the auto level hit Allie suddenly. She couldn’t actually feel the chill, but she could feel him feeling cold, and she realized she had pushed him up here with such a strength of will, he had forgotten to take his coat.

“Next deck,” Allie whispered. He obeyed.

The first passenger deck was warm, although not as warm as the engine room. He continued climbing up to the top level, which was open to the snowy day. Now, through this man, Allie could lean against the railing without falling through it.

But when Allie scanned the waters she was shocked to see the McGill’s ship was no longer there! She could see nothing but the shore of Staten Island in the distance. She panicked for a moment, until understanding set in.

I’m seeing through his eyes, she reminded herself, and he can’t see the ghost ship.

She stepped out of him. It was easy, like slipping out of an overcoat, and the second she did, the nature of the world changed again. The McGill’s ship reappeared now that she was viewing the world through her own ghostly eyes. The McGill’s ship was off to the right, but the ferry was moving too fast. At this rate the ferry would pass in front of it, not coming any closer than a hundred yards!

Filled with a sense of fury and despair, she turned to the old ferry pilot, but he was no longer there. She found him heading toward the ferry’s bridge. She hurried after him, and stepped right back into the old man, stealthily.

Immediately the world she saw became his color-blind living world, as he opened the door to the bridge, and went in.

The ferry’s bridge was small and smelled of old varnish. Another, younger pilot was at the controls.

“Winds are killer today,” said the younger ferryman. “They oughta make these things more aerodynamic.”

“Yah,” said the old man, absently.

The younger man glanced over at him for a second. “Something wrong? “

“Nah, nah,” he said, “it’s just…nothing, I don’t know. Something weird.”

Allie knew he was sensing her. Even though she was hiding beneath the threshold of his understanding, he was feeling the hint of her presence. A plan was forming in her mind, but if he was becoming aware of her, she would have to make her move quickly, or it would be too late.

“Tell him to take his break early,” Allie demanded. “Take over the controls.”

Suddenly Allie felt the body of the old man turn, looking around as if searching for someone behind him. “What the-?”

“Something bite yah?” asked the younger pilot. “I’ll tell yah, the bugs here don’t know it’s winter. They breed down in the engine room, and crawl up here between the bulkheads.”

“Do it!” Allie insisted. “Take control of the ferry now!”

But the old man said — —no!— There was a panic in his thoughts and Allie knew she had been exposed.

— who are you? what do you want?— In her panic, she considered leaping out of him, and right into the other pilot—but she had never done a person-to-person leap before. No, it was best to stay where she was and work with the old man. She calmed herself down, and spoke to him through her thoughts.

“That doesn’t matter,” she told him, “all that matters is that you take the wheel and change course.”

“No!” He said it aloud, this time.

The other man looked at him. “No, what?”

“No … uh … it wasn’t a bug,” he said. “At least not the kind you’re talking about.”

The other guy didn’t know what to make of it, so he just turned his attention forward.

“Never mind who I am,” Allie thought. “You have to take the wheel! You have to change course!”

But he wouldn’t. That’s when Allie made a calculated move. This was a battle of wills, and although she was a stranger in his skin, her sense of touch didn’t seem as numb as it had before. Maybe…just maybe… Allie thrust a hand forward and found that the hand moved. It wasn’t her hand but the old pilots. His fingers quivered as two spirits struggled to control it, but in the end Allie won. She wasn’t just mind-surfing now, she was body-surfing, and could use this man’s body as if it were her own. She grasped the shoulder of the younger pilot and spoke, but when her voice came out it was the dry, raspy voice of a man who had smoked two packs of cigarettes a day his whole life.