I stared up at Elias Finch, my leg screaming in pain, but honestly, that felt like background noise compared to the shock that hit me right in the chest. He was real. He was right there. The ghost of my recent past, standing in front of me like it was the most normal thing in the world—concern on his face, thermos in hand, like we were sitting at some high school pep rally instead of the site of my maybe career-ending injury.
What the hell is he doing here? My brain spun. Eli Finch and Kaelen Vance? No way. Kaelen doesn't have friends. He has victims.
He sat next to me on the bench, hoodie and sneakers so out of place next to Kaelen's mud-stained designer stuff. "Don't stress about the wipeout. I won't tell anyone."
"Accident," I muttered, testing the swelling in my thigh. "That wasn't an accident. And what do you mean by 'tell anyone'? Tell them what?" I snapped, trying to force Kaelen's signature aggression into my tone. But it came out weaker than I wanted, drowned out by the pain and the confusion.
Eli leaned in, lowering his voice like he was letting me in on some secret. "Look, Vance, I know your reputation. I know you hate me. But… you don't have to put on the act with me. I know who you are. Marcus."
I froze. Completely. My injured leg, my arms, even my breath—all of it just stopped.
No. No, no, no. Yui had said no one remembered. How does he know it? Did Yui lie to me?
"You're imagining things, Finch," I said quickly, my voice sharp but shaky. "You hit your head. I'm Kaelen Vance. You don't know me."
Eli shook his head slowly, like he had prepared for me to deny it. "I know it sounds crazy. Hell, I thought I was losing my mind, too. But it's true. How else would I know you used to hate Wok Stop? Or how you obsessed over getting a 98% in Harrison's class? Those weren't my grades, Marcus. They were yours."
I opened my mouth, but no excuse came out fast enough.
He pressed on. "When you took over my body, I didn't vanish. I was still there. Just shoved into the passenger seat, watching while you drove. Couldn't move, couldn't speak. Just… trapped."
It was the first real, concrete piece of information I'd gotten since this whole nightmare started. Yui's rules had always been vague. This was different. This was terrifying.
"But when you left," Eli continued, fiddling with the rim of his thermos, "at first I woke up normal. Like nothing had happened. No memory at all. Just a weird haze."
"Exactly," I cut in, desperate. "That's the rule. The host doesn't remember anything."
"Let me finish," Eli said quickly. "The memories came back. Slowly. First in dreams. I'd see myself—my body—but it wasn't me controlling it. Winning fights, acing tests, hitting the gym harder than I ever did… I was watching it like a movie. And then, it all lined up. I remembered you, Marcus. Everything you did while you were me."
My back hit the bench hard, like I needed something solid behind me to even process that. "But that doesn't make sense. If the memories are suppressed, how the hell did you push through? I don't even remember Kaelen's life before the swap."
Eli's eyes lit up, almost excited. "That's the thing! It's not erased. It's suppressed. Your consciousness isn't gone, it's just shoved deep inside the body, forced under. If you fight hard enough, if you claw your way back—you can get it all back. That's what happened to me."
The words sank into me like ice water. Which meant… every single body I'd borrowed still had the original person in there. Watching. Remembering. And if Eli broke through, then maybe the real Kaelen could too.
I dropped the fake bully act. "Why are you telling me this, Finch? Do you want revenge? Payback for me hijacking your life for two weeks?"
Eli blinked, looking honestly surprised. He shook his head quickly. "No. Not at all. I'm not here for revenge."
"Then why?" I demanded.
His gaze drifted past me, toward the noisy crowd in the distance. "Because I want to know too. What caused this? Who's doing it? Why are they playing with our lives? I was a nobody, Marcus. I was fine with that. Invisible. But now? Now I know there's something bigger out there, and I can't just go back to being Eli Finch. I want answers. And you're the only one who has them."
Marcus could see the determination in his eyes. He was speaking genuinely, his eyes were straight, looking at him as if asking for answers.
It hit me then. An unlikely alliance. Me, trapped in the body of the school's worst bully. And him, the quiet nobody who had been forced to share his skin with me for two weeks. Now, he was my unexpected link to the truth.
It's not like my Marcus didn't like his idea, but his ego was not allowing it. For someone who has always done everything in his own power, now asked to team up and form an alliance, it was not Marcus's cup of tea.
However, he did understand that right now, what he needs are more clues towards this incident, and for that, he has to form an alliance and team up with others. His ego was not accepting it, but his mind was.
I looked down at my throbbing leg. The pain was still sharp, but the weight of the opportunity sitting next to me was heavier. Eli Finch wasn't just a complication—he was a resource.