Soul Protector (Soul Protector Series)

by Amanda Leigh Cowley

  I slowly reached my hand towards his, and he grasped it, squeezing it between both palms. We sat like that for ages, neither of us talking.

  I had so many thoughts rushing around my head. I wanted to tell Mum, but I wasn’t allowed. Even discussing it with Michelle would help...

  I jumped at a noise in the alley. Dad and I turned our heads at the same time to witness several men storming into the garden. There was shouting and chaos, and my first thought was they must be the other CSPs. I was nearly knocked over when two of them jumped on Dad and pinned him to the floor.

  I held my breath as I watched. All of them were wearing the same black clothes and body armour. Monitors. I scanned their faces and spotted Tom pinning Dad’s legs to the floor. I wasn’t switched so it was impossible for me to tell if he was.

  A monitor I didn’t recognise was holding down Dad’s head. Another one had bent Dad’s arm behind his back while another patted him down and found the knife he’d shoved in his pocket earlier.

  In my peripheral vision I saw someone kneeling over the CSP Terry had stabbed. He stayed there for a while, checking the body, before walking towards me and crouching down. “Gracie, are you hurt?”

  I looked up to see the face that had been haunting me.

  “No, I’m not, Dan. Or is it Tom?”

  “Dan,” he said gently. He looked over at Tom who was still pinning Dad down. “We reached our time limit so we had to switch back.”

  “How did you know I was here?”

  “You rang me,” Tom piped up. “You didn’t speak, but we managed to track the phone signal to here.”

  I thought back to when I’d retrieved his number outside Mum’s house. When I chucked the phone on the passenger seat, it must have triggered a call.

  I looked across to Dad and squirmed at how rough they were being with him. His face was pushed into the dirt and one of the monitors was holding his wrist right up near his shoulder blades.

  “Dan, please tell them not to hurt him, he just saved my life. He’s harmless”

  Dan shook his head. “They’re not hurting him. They’re just keeping him restrained. And he’s not harmless, Gracie. This is Brian Hinton, one of the guys we’ve been after for months.”

  “Brian Hinton? His name’s not Hinton, it’s Nicholls,” I spat.

  “It used to be Hinton,” came Dad’s muffled reply.

  The monitors eased off to let him speak properly. “Before I was adopted, my name was Hinton.”

  Dan interrupted. “Gracie, did you say Nicholls? That was your old surname wasn’t it?

  “Yes.”

  His expression changed as the realisation hit him. “Brian’s your Dad?”

  I nodded.

  He leaned forward, put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “I’m so sorry, Gracie. I wish there was another way…”

  “To do what?”

  He took a deep breath, “Brian has been switched into Terry’s body for years.”

  “And I have to give it back,” Dad said sadly.

  A vision of the Switch Enforcement Chamber flashed into my mind.

  “Oh no… No way. You can’t.”

  “He has to,” Dan said gently.

  Tom and the other monitors pulled Dad up off the floor. He was handcuffed to one of them and his movements were restricted by leg restraints. They began to walk towards the archway and he shuffled as fast as he could to keep pace. The whole time he looked at me sadly, an apologetic look on his face.

  I watched in a trance. Any minute now I’m going to wake up and the nightmare will be over.

  I came to my senses and raced ahead of them, standing in front of the archway to block their exit. “Don’t do this. Please, don’t take my dad away.”

  The monitors ignored me, brushing me out of their way like a minor inconvenience.

  Dan came to stand by my side.

  I grabbed his arm. “Dan, you’ve got to make them stop.”

  He had a look of pity in his eyes. “I know it’s hard, Gracie, but they don’t have any choice. They have to do this.”

  He shook his head, “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

  “Please, Dan. I’m begging you,” I said, my voice hoarse.

  He locked eyes with me and I could see his resolve cracking. He took a deep breath. “Wait,” he shouted, catching the attention of the other monitors. “I know it’s against orders, but just give her five minutes with him.”

  “Alone?” I asked, pushing my luck.

  Dan shook his head. “I’ll stay with you.”

  He looked towards the monitors. “Just hang around the other side of the alley. I’ll shout if I need you.”

  Tom and the others didn’t look happy with the request, but they did what he said and made their way out of the garden.

  My mind scrabbled for a solution.

  “Dan, we have to get Dad out of here fast. We can take him over the back wall, somewhere they won’t find him.”

  He looked at me in disbelief. “Gracie, we can’t do that.” He flicked his eyes in Dad’s direction. “What about the real Terry? He was your dad’s doctor. He didn’t do anything wrong. We have to give him his body back.”

  I took a deep breath and looked at Dad in Terry’s body. I’d conveniently managed to push the poor victim out of my thoughts. I knew Dan was right, but I couldn’t bear the thought of losing Dad now I had a new understanding of him.

  Dad reached his cuffed hands over to me and took my hand between his. I noticed the movement put Dan on edge and he hovered by my side.

  “He’s right, Gracie,” Dad said, letting out a sigh. “You remember I got knocked down when I was drunk years ago? I was in a bad way and Terry was the doctor who treated me in A&E. I used every last scrap of strength I had to make the switch with him before my primary body passed away. I shouldn’t have done it.”

  I bowed my head. I had to get this in perspective.

  “My punishment has been his voice in my head all these years, like a tortured soul. To cope with it, I drank even more and then with access to drugs in hospital, well, I just developed a new habit. I stopped working and spent all my time getting high. But when I got busted and sent to prison, I had no choice but to get sober.”

  “That’s why we couldn’t touch him for years,” Dan interrupted. “We got informed a CSP was inside, but we couldn’t get to him. He got released earlier than our insider told us, and we lost him.”

  “When I came out, I had to escape Terry’s family,” Dad filled in. “So I went on the run.”

  I felt sad as I thought of the real Terry. He had family and obviously used to have a good career. Dad had taken all that away from him.

  Dan squeezed my arm again. “We’ve got to go, Gracie, the guys outside will be getting impatient.”

  I nodded, trying to swallow down the lump in my throat. “Just give me a minute.” I took a step towards Dad.

  “I am so sorry for everything that happened to you.” I said leaning towards him, unable to hug him properly because of the restraints.

  “Gracie, I’m the one who’s sorry. This is all such a mess. I’m just glad I can do the right thing now.”

  I leant up and planted a kiss on the salty tracks of his tears.

  He squeezed his lips into a smile, and when he spoke his voice was choked with emotion. “Bye, Gracie. Be brave.”

  He gave Dan a serious look. “You take care of her, she’s a good’un.”

  “I’ll make sure she’s alright,” Dan said. I wondered if he meant it.

  Dan told me to wait where I was, while he led Dad out through the alley. I didn’t want to watch Dad being taken away, but not watching was even worse. I inched my way out after them and leant against the brick archway.

  The other monitors had surrounded Dad and were manoeuvring him into a black van parked on the roadside. A couple of monitors jumped in the back with him and slammed the doors shut.

  My vision was starting to swim, but I saw Dan walk over to Tom and say something in his ear. T
hey both flicked a glance in my direction, and then Dan climbed into the passenger seat, while Tom walked over to stand by my side.

  As the van drove off, I was unable to hold it together. Sobs wracked my body, and after an initial hesitation, I felt Tom wrap me in his arms and hold me tight. To his credit, he didn’t try to tell me everything was going to be okay. He just stood silent, holding me and letting me cry until I ran out of tears.

  When my sobs reduced to mere sniffing, he cleared his throat and held up some keys. “Where do you want me to take you?”

  “Are those my car keys?” I asked, reaching into my pocket for a tissue.

  “Yeah, we found them on the road outside.”

  My head was thumping, and I felt drained. My mind kept taking me to the Switch Enforcement Chamber and I had to work hard to push the image away.

  “It’s okay, Tom. I’ll drop you off and then drive myself home,” I ran my fingertips under my eyelashes to remove the last traces of tears.

  “I really don’t think you should be on your own right now,” he said, giving me a crooked smile.

  “So who can I be with? I haven’t got any SP friends, I can’t tell any of my own friends what just happened. I really want to see Mum, but…” My jaw dropped as I thought about Mum waiting for Terry. “Oh no, Tom, what am I going to tell her?”

  He put his hand on my shoulder. “You shouldn’t tell her anything for now. Don’t worry. Dan will come up with something.”

  Don’t worry? She was going to be heartbroken. I’d just lost my Dad, and this time it really hurt, and now Mum was about to lose her happiness too.

  I looked up at Tom.

  “Terry will still exist though won’t he? I mean, as him. Surely he’ll have memories of Mum and being in love with her?”

  Tom was shaking his head. “They’ll erase all recent memory at the Office. Their objective will be to get him back to his old life, before the switch.

  I nodded and squeezed my lips together. Terry’s family deserved him back.

  “Come on, Gracie, let me take you home. I’ll drive your car and get someone to pick me up later.”

  I looked up at him gratefully. “Thanks, Tom.”

  I couldn’t help wishing he was his brother. Dan was using Tom to fulfil his promise to Dad. It was obvious nothing had changed between us.

  CHAPTER 23

  .

  Making Things Right

  .

  I woke up with that horrible uneasy feeling you get when you know something’s wrong but you can’t quite put your finger on it. I sifted through my mind to try and pin it down. Then, as details of the day before crashed down on me, I slumped back on the pillows.

  Years ago, when Mum told me Dad had died, all I felt was relief. I’d thought he was evil and decided the world was a better place without him. But now, although I still hated what he’d done to us, I ached for the sober version of him back.

  I tried to imagine how different our lives would have been if he’d never been inflicted with the stupid ‘gift.’ It ruined his life, and it was making a mess of mine.

  I swung my legs off the bed and instinctively reached for my mobile, before remembering it lay smashed to pieces on the road. I wandered through to the living room and saw the red flight flickering on the answer phone. Two flashes meant two messages. I wasn’t in the mood for talking to anyone but I knew one would be from Mum, worried about Terry.

  I pressed the play button and confirmed my suspicions. Mum had left a message asking me to ring her. I cringed at the anxiety in her voice. The other message was from Kerry, she was asking why I wasn’t replying to my texts.

  I hit the delete button and chewed my lip. I couldn’t ignore Mum, but I had to brace myself before I called her. I had a quick shower and grabbed myself a coffee, trying to summon the strength I needed.

  I sat on the sofa staring at the phone before punching her number in. I prepared myself to start lying and felt sick at the thought.

  “Hello,” she answered.

  “Hi, Mum, it’s me, just returning your call. You okay?”

  “Oh, hello darling, thanks for ringing back. You’re not going to believe what’s happened.”

  I swallowed hard, “What’s up, Mum?”

  “It’s Terry. He didn’t come round last night. It’s not like him so I started to get worried. I kept ringing him but his mobile was turned off.

  “Oh.”

  “Anyway, he finally turned up really late last night. And he wasn’t alone, there was a younger man with him, an official I think.”

  I knew it would have been one of the monitors.

  “Terry seemed really odd – spaced out or something. With the younger man’s encouragement, he started to explain something to me and, Gracie, what he told me seems really crazy, but I do believe him…”

  She paused for a minute, probably checking that statement was true.

  My hand started to shake. Surely they hadn’t told her about switching bodies.

  “To cut a long story short, Terry isn’t who he said he was.”

  I held my breath, but Mum obviously expected some sort of reaction.

  “Are you still there, Gracie?”

  “Yes Mum, go on.” I realised I’d been digging my fingernails into my palm and left angry marks.

  “He used to be a doctor, but he’s been suffering with amnesia for years. Apparently he was alcoholic and had a drug habit and went right off the rails. I don’t remember all the details, it all got a bit far-fetched, but he ended up going to prison. Anyway, unknown to him, he had a wife and family,” her voice took on a give-away wobble.

  “They tried visiting him in prison, but he refused to see them. He just couldn’t accept it was true. When he came out, he didn’t really know who he was. The prison service resettled him but he didn’t stay in the housing he’d been given; he moved area and ended up living in a squat. He’s been lying to us about his job and everything. It’s all been a front to work his way under my roof. He just needed a place to stay and someone to feed him.”

  “Mum, I’m sure it was more than that.”

  “Oh, there’s more. Some of his memory came back yesterday. He finally remembered he had a family and he’s even been round to see his wife. She’s ecstatic and taken him back. Obviously its early days, so they’re taking it step by step.” She gave a nervous laugh. “So I’m surplus to requirements. God, I can’t really get my head round it all.”

  “Oh Mum, I’m so sorry. You must be feeling awful.”

  “The funny thing is, Gracie, after hearing about everything, I realised I’d been in love with a man who doesn’t really exist. I mean, obviously I’m upset, but the guy I met last night wasn’t the man I’d fallen in love with.”

  Poor Mum, she didn’t know how near the mark she was.

  “Listen, I’m coming straight round,” I said, standing up.

  “No, no, don’t be silly darling. I’m fine honest. Obviously I’m going to miss him, but I really am okay.”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

  “You know what?” she carried on. “I wonder if it was seeing Emily that sparked something off in Terry’s memory. After he saw her he got really agitated. He couldn’t settle, made his excuses and disappeared. Maybe his daughter looks like her or something?”

  Or maybe it was the aura she was sporting.

  “Maybe… Look Mum, I’ve got to go, but if you want company later just call and I’ll pop round.”

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine love. You take care and I’ll see you soon.”

  I hung up. That went a lot better than I’d anticipated. I knew she was putting on a brave face to protect me, but she seemed to have accepted what she’d been told.

  She was such a good role model, I decided to follow her lead. I would protect her from my misery too. I could hardly tell her what had happened anyway.

  CHAPTER 24

  .

  Time Heals

  .

  It took me a long time to f
eel anywhere near normal again. After forcing myself to get out of bed each morning and attend PSP training, one morning I woke up and realised the black fog I’d been fighting had lifted. I wouldn’t say I was in love with life again. I just felt normal. And right then, normal was a huge improvement.

  ~

  It was a short while after my life got back to normal that it happened. The day had started off remarkably uneventful. Because it was the weekend, I’d had a nice lie-in, before showering. As usual I stayed in the shower way too long. It felt good to tilt my face up to the shower head, close my eyes and let the warm water pour off me. Afterwards, I squinted into the steamed-up mirror and pulled a comb through my wet hair, making sure it fell forward over my ears.

  I wandered through to my bedroom and tugged on my favourite black sweat pants and hoodie. I had nothing special planned, so I’d decided to start following my healthy resolution, get organised, and cook a meal for later. I put MTV on and walked through to the kitchen.

  I sang to myself as I set about rustling up spaghetti Bolognese. I had my cookbook open on the side as I tracked down ‘near enoughs’ from the list of ingredients. I felt sure tomato ketchup would be up to the role of tomato puree, and I didn’t have actual spaghetti but thanks to my newly stocked cupboards, I was going to compromise with pasta shells.

  The intercom buzzed, and I wiped my hands on my apron as I walked over to the buzzer. “Hel-lo,” I sang into it.

  “Hi, Gracie.”

  My heart stopped. Breathe, Gracie.

  “It’s me, Dan. Can I come up?”

  I had to swallow hard before I could speak again. “Erm, yes… come on up.”

  I walked over to the door in a daze and leant against the frame. I had to concentrate on taking one breath after another, something I’d done all my life without thinking but right then it required extra effort.