Sandy Hinton

To Alex, the feeling of grabbing a person and consuming them whole was the greatest joy in life. Not even he knew why he was like this. One day he woke up in his bed with a slight pain in his head. Over weeks it grew slowly, not an unbearable pain, but a consistent one, . Living what he remembered as his normal life, Alex had been working the first time he switched. While in his office, his coworker Hank slipped and fell, dying not long after. When Alex realised and tried to help him up, the first thing he noticed was the stopping of pain within his head. The rhythmic pounding that would only get worse had stopped immediately.  The second thing Alex noticed was that the hand that had touched hundreds of others before was now sucking in Hank's body, and instead of being horrified, he couldn’t contain his joy. At that moment, he was at the top of the world and no one could tell him otherwise, until he wasn’t. Alex had shrunk down, the entire process taking seconds. He was confused, the greatest moment of his life was cut when another co-worker walked in. 

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“Morning Hank” 

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Alex stared at him, confused as to why the man would talk to the crumpled body of Hank, looking down only to see no body. He realised his coworker was talking to him and ran immediately to the bathroom. In the mirror he did in fact see Hank, everything from perfect teeth to his slightly parted haircut had been mimicked perfectly. The thrill had not yet worn off, but he was returning to reason. His first thought was that he could never do that again. There could be cameras, or witnesses. He could be locked in a lab somewhere and tested on. Looking at Hank’s stern face staring back at him, he thought back to much easier times when that look only meant he hadn’t finished his work on time. Now, Hank’s eyes pierced his soul, looking for confirmation that this wouldn’t happen to another person, and silently agreed. 

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Two weeks later, the headache had returned, and 3 weeks later it was worse than ever before. The disappearance of Alex was brief. The cameras malfunctioned that day, and according to the police a man of his description and origin had never existed. Alex, living through pain, was livid on the walk home. He was forcing himself not to try and take another body, and his life was meaningless? How could he not exist? In asking himself this, a homeless man touched his shoulder. Before he could even ask for change, Alex flipped and punched him across the face. The man stumbled and fell, cracking his head on the concrete. To make sure he was alive, Alex began to tap him, but the instant he made contact, his body was shifting again. The first thing Alex thought, was he had taken youth for granted, because every part of him hurt. The second thing he thought was that he had to do it again. 

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Even a serial killer needed money and so the time he didn’t spend killing people, Alex worked from home as a call operator, as to not have to explain his inconsistent form, and because of it was borderline broke. He decided that he should not live like this, and so decided he would rob local stores and buildings.

 

One morning, on his way out, Alex caught one of the homeless men across the street staring at him. Once the man realized that Alex had noticed him, he jumped and then turned away, seeming afraid. Instinctively, Alex began walking after the man.  Alex realized, then, that this man had been standing across the street, watching him leave return to his house every day, and he had never considered what any one watching a different person leave and return to the same house everyday might think. He began aggressively chasing the man, and the man ran in response. lex followed for several blocks, but, eventually, the man got away from him, and he ended up next to a library.

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The librarian there, whose name tag read Susan, was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, so much so that he walked up to her and asked simply, what are your favorite books? When she told him, he immediately forgot about the homeless man before, and went out in search of them. Over the next few weeks, each time a different person, Alex would check out and read the books in his time between work and killing. Eventually, he finished station eleven, the final book on Susan’s list, and returned the books. Minutes after getting a fresh face, he walked into the library and struck up a conversation, asking about her favorite books. She had been used to answering the question, but not to seeing people respond beyond it. His knowledge of her entire list of books flustered her, so when she saw him back the next few days, and he asked her to dinner, she promptly accepted. 

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When she invited him to a second date after, it took a few hours for Alex to realise that if he were to take her up on this, he would not be able to take another form. Some weeks later, in the same body, the pain had returned in Alex’s head. It was bearable though, as he thought it was possible he had actually found love. He constantly battled himself on whether Susan was worth it, whether time with her felt better than switching into a whole new person, and another week later he had his answer. The constant pain in his head was not getting any better, but his thoughts of killing were receding.

 

On his way out of the house to meet Susan again, he saw the same homeless man from a month ago, once again staring at him before running off. This time, Alex chased him down into an alley, where he was promptly shot in the neck. 

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When Alex woke up in what he assumed was his bed. He had no memory of anything before now, only a crippling pain in his head, a faint idea of how to get rid of it, and flashes of a woman in a library.