Little Missy

The Pact

Jack Thompson sat alone in a dark room in a rundown building in a bad part of town. There was a single lamp – a red Chinese ball – looming low overhead. The paint on the walls had been peeling for some time. There was a strange stench in the air. Was it mustard? Maybe it came from an Indian deli down the street. But there weren’t any open windows nearby that Jack could see.

His chair felt old and crusty. Torn fabric. It creaked as he sat into it. Beneath his feet, the carpet looked matted and dirty. Around him were various knickknacks, little keepsakes and trinkets from all over the world. A tiny statue of Ganesh, the Hindu god with an elephant’s head. A Russian nesting doll. A hula dancer in a grass skirt holding a ukulele.

In the corner, Jack saw a large old wooden bookshelf. None of the books looked modern. Leather-bound texts, a handful of browning scrolls, random old tomes of various sizes. Maybe this guy was a collector of old literature or something.

“Good evening,” said the man, in an eerie, Vincent Price type voice.

Jack immediately looked up. The man emerged from the shadows. He towered over Jack, taller than average, with a long narrow beard, widow’s peak hairline, and one lazy eye that always seemed to be staring at something just beside Jack. His face was cracked with wrinkles; his hair more silver than black. The man had to be at least 60 years old, if not more; in comparison, Jack was only 21. The old, looming man wore a long, draping black robe with a red sash belt. His silk robe dragged along the floor, obscuring his feet from view.

Jack stood up and nervously introduced himself. “Hello.”

“Hello,” replied the eerie man.

“I’m not sure I’m in the right place. Are you Derrick Baker?”

“I am.”

“I’m Jack Thompson. Alice Abrams sent me. She said… she said maybe you could help me?”

The man stared at Jack with his one good eye, sizing him up and down. “Come this way,” he said.

Jack followed him into an adjacent room, even smaller and more dimly lit than the first.

“Sit,” commanded the man.

Jack saw a small round wooden table before them. Two hand-carved wooden chairs waited on either side. Jack sat down. The chair creaked, feeling like it might buckle and break under his own weight. The eerie man took his seat across from him.

“Alice Abrams, you say?” the man asked.

Jack nodded nervously. “Yes sir. The actress. I was her personal assistant on her last film. And she um, said you could, uh, well…”

“Make your wildest dreams come true?”

“Yeah. In so many words.”

The man paused, pressing his fingers together over his mouth in contemplation. “I’m very selective about my clients. You’re the first person she’s referred to me. Why you? What makes you so special?”

“I’m in love, sir,” Jack said. “Her name’s Julia Lang.”

“And does she love you?”

“She does. Very much. We want to get married.”

“What’s stopping you?” the man inquired.

“Her dad. Her family. They own a ton of prime real estate in Malibu and Orange County. She’s has an older sister, you see, and the sister fell in love with some guy who didn’t have any money, or a job, or really anything to his name. They were married for like 18 months and then he tried to divorce her, claiming she was abusive and stuff toward him. I met the older sister. She’s a total saint. He obviously was just after her money. Anyway, it grew into a scandal, got into the papers. They ended up settling after a long drawn out court battle. It was a mess. Anyway, because of that, Julia’s parents won’t let her marry anybody who’s not already rich or successful.”

“And I should assume you’re not?” the eerie man replied.

“No sir. It’s always been my dream to be a big Hollywood movie producer. I’ve been working as a PA, trying to get some experience. Honestly, I’ve got 2 roommates in a one-bedroom apartment, and I’m still struggling to make rent. You know how it is.”

“So I’ve heard,” he said.

“I really do honestly love Julia. We both want to be together. Forever. I’m not after her money. She knows that. But her parents are trying to convince her to date somebody else. They said she’d been ‘slumming’ it long enough with me.”

“Then why not elope? Young lovers do it all the time.”

“She really wants her father’s blessing. And he’s super strict. He’s threatened that if she eloped, he’d cut her out of the family inheritance. I can’t ask her to make that kind of sacrifice for me. I want to give her the world,” Jack said. “Not have her give everything up, just to be with me.”

The old man nodded. “I see.”

“Anyway, on my last job, somehow I got talking about all this to Alice Abrams. She liked me. Said she believed in love and wanted to help me. She gave me your info. Said you could work miracles. That she owes her whole career and life to you.”

“She is correct,” he said.

“She said that… I know this sounds crazy, but that you were a great and powerful warlock. That you could cast a spell that would make me rich and successful. You could make my dream come true and make me a big successful Hollywood movie producer.”

“That is also correct. Did Alice also explain my part of the bargain?”

“She said there’d be a cost. A trade of some kind. But she didn’t know what it’d be.”

“That’s right. Tell me, young man, what’s it worth to you?”

“Sir?”

“Marrying your sweetheart. Being a multi-millionaire. Having your own movie production company. I can make all that happen for you. In seven days’ time, that can be your new reality.”

“Seriously?” Jack asked, growing excited.

“Yes,” slowly nodded the old man. “But in exchange, I need something from you. So tell me, young man, what’s all that worth to you?”

“Marrying the girl of my dreams and being a big name Hollywood producer?” Jack asked. “Anything! Name your price! I mean, obviously, I don’t have any money right now… that’s why I’m here…”

“I don’t require your money.” The old man paused. “Did Alice explain to you what she’s giving me in return for her wish come true?”

Jack shook his head.

“That girl came to me nearly five years ago as an impoverished, unattractive, struggling actress. She wanted nothing more than to be a beautiful and famous movie star.”

“And today she’s an A-list celebrity,” Jack said. “Recently ranked as one of the top 10 most beautiful women in the world.”

“That was her wish. I made all that become reality for her. My word is my bond; what I promise you, shall manifest.”

“But in return?” Jack asked.

“I require a sacrifice. A trade. Compensation. Something I also want or need, that you can provide.”

He was almost afraid to ask. “Okay. So… what did Alice give you?”

“I promised her two full decades of health, youth, beauty, fame, and fortune. Fully living and enjoying her dream life, as she always hoped it’d be and more. And in return for all that, I asked only one thing.”

“Her… soul?” he asked, his voice cracking a little.

The man chuckled. “No, young man. In approximately another 15 years’ time, our contract shall be fulfilled.”

Jack sat uneasily in this small wooden chair. “I’m still not following. There’s a time limit, so what? Most actors are lucky to be on the A-list for half that long. What’d she give you in exchange?”

“She hasn’t yet,” said the man. He started stroking his long narrow beard. “She will, after her 20 years are complete.”

“Oh,” said Jack, as if he understood. He had no clue.

“Alice was right. I am a powerful warlock. But I am not immortal. But I’ve lived for several centuries. Do you know how?”

Jack slowly shook his head.

“After Alice enjoys her promised years, she will surrender her body to me.”

“Ew.” This guy had to be 60-plus years old already. In another 15 years, she was going to have sex with him??

“You misunderstand, Mr. Thompson,” the old man said. “She’ll be 42 years old when our contract expires. And at that time, she has agreed to give me her body, and she shall spend her remaining years in mine.”

“Wait, what?”

He nodded. “Every few decades, I make a similar pact with someone. I grant them the life of their dreams for a while. Give them everything they wanted and hoped for and more. I give them more life in those years than most get to experience or enjoy in a hundred years. But after a predetermined time – a full twenty years, in Alice Abrams’ case – we switch bodies. I gain their youth. I extend my existence. And they possess my old body, retaining all their memories and experiences, dying happy and fulfilled soon after.”

“O-kay…”

“Alice Abrams agreed to the terms. She felt it was more than fair.”

“But, isn’t she like, a girl? Why do you want to be a 42-year-old woman?”

He chuckled. “Oh, young man, I’ve been both men and women so many different times. It’s not so strange as you might think. It took some getting used to at first. Believe it or not, I was a female first. I was actually born a girl. I was the most powerful witch in the land. And then one day I was falsely accused and blamed for a disease that inflicted the livestock. They were going to sacrifice me, to appease the gods. I ran and hid. Stayed with one of the elder witches, in a nearby town. Among other things, she taught me the soul transference spell. She showed me how to do it. I entered her body; she entered mine.”

“How long ago was this?”

The old man thought back. “Oh, I suppose that was five or six hundred years ago now. She actually enjoyed being in my younger body for a while. I watched her run and play and laugh and do cartwheels in my teenage body. I didn’t realize how little I had appreciated my own youth. How much I had wasted it, acting as if I’d be that young forever.”

“I guess it’s like they say. Youth is wasted on the young.”

The old man nodded. “The spell could only be performed during a New Moon, so we had to wait before we could switch back to our original bodies. And it didn’t take long—in my teenage body, with hormones being what they are, she met a handsome young lad… and, without my permission I might add, slept with him several times. But ultimately that turned into her downfall. Someone spotted her at the boy’s house. The villagers captured her. Dragged her to the town square. Determined to sacrifice her—who they thought was me—to the gods. I discovered it too late. I tried to stop them. Tried to tell them she wasn’t who they thought she was. They just thought I was a crazy old lady. I watched them murder her—my original body—with her own eyes. And I knew I’d be stuck as her for the rest of my life.”

“Oh my God, that’s terrible! Horrific.”

“Except, I realized, I wasn’t actually stuck in anyone’s body ever again. I had found the key to immortality. I couldn’t prevent aging or disease, but I could always find a willing host to give me their body, in exchange for granting them their deepest wish.”

“Well, look, I’m sorry if I wasted your time. But my body’s not available.” Jack started getting up to leave.

The old man chuckled. “Relax, Mr. Thompson. Sit back down. I don’t want or need your body. In fifteen years, I’ll be a woman again, in Alice Abrams’ body. Maybe I’ll continue her acting career, or maybe I’ll retire and move to someplace I haven’t been before. Our body exchange will add a good thirty or more years to my life, before I need to switch with someone again. And with the way medicine and modern technology is going, it may even be longer than that!”

“So… what would you want from me, to grant my wish?”

“You need to give me something else.”

The old man stared directly into Jack’s eyes, like he was staring into Jack’s soul with his one good eye. The man’s lazy eye appeared to be staring at something on the floor. “W-What?” Jack asked uncomfortably.

“In exchange for helping you marry the love of your life, and have the wildly successful career you dream of, I don’t want your body or even your wife’s body. I want your future daughter’s.”

“What?!”

The old man nodded. “The way I see it, you’ll be married in a year. Two at most. And with a love so strong, it won’t take long before your wife becomes pregnant with your first child. In fifteen years’ time, I’ll complete my contract with Alice Abrams. After I do, I’ll find you. By then, your daughter will be no more than 12 or 14 years old. Possibly even younger, if you don’t get your wife pregnant right away. I’ll ask to adopt your little girl. You will say yes.”

“Like hell I will!”

“I will take excellent care of her. Love her. Teach her. Guide her. Protect her. I will give her a life of comfort and luxury—I’ll have been a movie star for 20 years at that time, remember. She’ll want for nothing.”

“No. No deal. Why do you need my future daughter, anyway? Why not just knock up some chick yourself now?”

“Derrick Baker—the man whose body I last swapped with, failed to mention a little sterility problem he had from an STD he picked up in the late ‘70s. It’s treatable, but the damage has already been done. I couldn’t get someone pregnant if I tried. But more importantly, I rarely like to swap with my own biological children. Their appearance is too similar. I like variety. I’ve been men and women of every nationality and race. I’ve been tall and short, fat and skinny, pale and dark-skinned, had freckles, been a blonde, brunette, and redhead… It’s more fun for me to get a fresh, unrelated body each time I go.”

“Still though. I don’t take adoption lightly. I grew up in the foster care system, you know. I went from house to house, never knowing if this time they’d keep me. All I ever wanted was to belong to a family. Julia’s my chance to finally have that.”

“And you will!” assured the old man. “You can have as many children as you want. But in exchange for that – your career, your success, your wife, your family – I have but one fee: your first daughter. That’s it. Have a dozen kids after that; I don’t care, they’re all yours. But the first belongs to me, for making your dream come true.”

“But why do you want to adopt my first born?”

“I haven’t been a mother in many, many years,” he admitted. “I miss it. But don’t worry. She’ll have a good, loving, forever home. I’ll raise her as my own.”

“Well, that’s good.”

“And one day, when she’s a young adult, I’ll explain to her our agreement, our contract. And that she, and her body, belongs to me. She and I will switch bodies. I’ll be young and beautiful again. A free spirit. About to inherit all the wealth my movie star mother had amassed for me. A whole new life full of opportunity, love, and adventure before me. And she, in Alice Abrams’s elder body, will retire—probably move to Florida, I don’t know—and she’ll be well taken care of, until the day she dies. She’ll become my mother. And I will have added many youthful and fresh decades to my life.”

“You’re sick.”

“I’m a survivor. Now do we have a deal?”