It's not easy to bargain with demons, which Eddie discovers the hard way after he escapes death by trading his soul to the demon Azir, a handsome and charming resident of Hell. Azir promises to return Eddie's soul in exchange for allowing demons the use of his body for their own amusement. It's the last deal he wants to make, but if he wants to save his soul, it may be his only choice.

There are many common-sense rules to live by, and I just managed to break three of them in one go: never wear black when walking at night, never cross against a red light, and never make a deal with the devil. So, there I am, lying in the street, the taste of blood in my mouth as I struggle to draw breath, and this guy walks up and looks down at me. He seemed like a normal guy, except for the absolute lack of any kind of human compassion in his eyes. He stared at me like I was some bug he couldn’t care less about stepping on.   “Boy, are you in a pickle or what?” he said, crouching down beside me. “That is a lot of blood. And I’m no expert on human anatomy, but I don’t think your arms and legs are supposed to bend like that. But I guess bouncing off a windshield, a telephone pole, and the street will do that to you.” He leaned closer, a flickering light dancing in the depths of his dark eyes. “You’re dying, Eddie. Can you feel it? Your life fading with each desperate beat of your heart?”   I wasn’t sure which was more frightening, that I could feel it, or that he knew my name.   “Are you ready to die, Eddie?” he asked. “In about two minutes, your heart will stop and your brain will cease to function, and you will find out what, if anything, waits for you on the other side. Are you ready for that? Or do you want to live?”   I tried to answer, but it came out as a sob, bloody bubbles flecking my lips.   “I can save you,” the strange man whispered, holding his hand out to me. …

Gemma signs up to be a test subject in a ‘Temporary Human Neuroengineering Trial’ that’s a little bit hazy on the details. It turns out a new neural transmitter and receiver pair are being tested, which allows somebody to experience all the sensations from, and control all the inputs to, somebody else’s body. Unfortunately for Gemma, she’s the receiver, and it really does feel like she’s still the one in control…

“Test Number One, beginning!”The voice came out of a small loudspeaker on the wall across from me. I didn’t know exactly what was being tested, but I figured it had something to do with the injection they’d given me when I first arrived.My name is Gemma, and I’m just broke enough that getting paid $500 to be a subject in a ‘Temporary Human Neuroengineering Trial’ was pretty damn appealing.I’d followed a listing on the student board all the way to this dingy room in the back of the nanotech building, where some excited postgraduates had made me sign a consent form and explained that they couldn’t explain anything before the experiment started. Then they stabbed me in the arm with a needle and left. Really helpful.I deduced it had something to do with the new nanobots the faculty had been working on. These microscopic machines could be put into a syringe and injected into mice, where their nervous system could be stimulated directly by a human wearing an EEG or something. I’d seen videos on instagram of the mice being made to run around mazes and do things they couldn’t have figured out so quickly on their own. I found that stuff super fascinating. Were they going to get me to control a mouse with my own set of nanobots? Or would they try to get my arm to jerk under somebody else's control, like that BrainNet/TMS experiment back in 2019? That would be kinda hot. I shivered and felt myself get a little bit aroused.I looked down and briefly cupped my boobs with my hands, a little gasp coming out of my mouth. Then I snapped my head up and stared at the wall across from me, throwing my hands down to the sides. …

Matt stumbles upon a ring that lets him possess people. Heavily inspired by the writing.com story The Possession Spell, but nerfed so the one with the power isn't in absolute control of everything.

My name's Matt. That day was meant to be just another day.. but it turned very weird, and very interesting.It would have been about 5pm when I walked into my apartment. It was convenient, since it was close enough to college, yet wasn't super expensive or loud. Plus I could walk to all the fun parties.Anyway, I walked in to see my girlfriend, Mira, sitting on the couch. I always thought she was cute in an exotic way - she was short, petite, with black hair and dark brown eyes. She was half Japanese, which is why I think I found her so attractive. Today, she was looking at me in a very unusual way. Not like her at all."Hey... Matt" she said hesitantly. Oh shit, I thought. Was she breaking up with me?"Hi?" I said carefully."So I have something to tell you..." Shit. It's really happening. I think she saw the look on my face, and quickly added "Oh no don't worry, nothing is wrong. We're still good. It's just... this is so weird."Relieved, I approached her and noticed she was wearing a ring. She never wore jewelry like that. "So, nice ring..." I said."Yeah that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Actually..." she started, getting up and walking over to me. I walked closer and took her hand. She flinched as I began to examine the ring, still on her finger. As I went to pull it off... "No!"The ring was half off, and I felt a force - not unlike a blast of wind - hit me. "Fine!" I slipped the ring back on... and blacked out.---I awoke in bed a short while later. Mira was sitting on the edge of the bed, playing with …

Not long after the original 'Body Rentals' series, the body possession device is becoming commonplace! This is the story of two girls working at Madame Maxine's club, where lonely guys can come and enjoy an experience inside the body of a hot woman.

“Why would I give you a freebie again?”“Because I’m really, really into it.”“Doesn’t sound like a good reason to me, buddy.”My friend Mia was negotiating with a new guy. It was a slow night, so the two of us were sitting with four or five other girls in the lobby of Madame Maxine’s. The four or so girls who’d already been rented were still in their rooms, so it wasn’t exactly kicking off out here.When Mia had told me she was working for one of those new Body Brothel’s I wasn’t surprised -- she was always into weird shit. When she managed to convince me to do a trial shift two months later, I was shocked that I went along with it.While some people kind of liked having a job where they could just sit back and let somebody move them around, I always had a lot of initiative -- and independence. But when the recent round of layoffs hit, and it was this or McDonalds. Fuck it, I thought.The way it worked was us girls would hang out in the lobby, drinking and chatting with clients, or johns as Mia called them. This gave us an opportunity to vet the people who’d have control of our bodies beforehand, and gave the johns an opportunity to see us as real people, rather than just bodies to be worn.If john liked the look of you, and you were okay with him (or sometimes, her) jumping into your skin, they’d pay at the desk and disappear into a backroom. Meanwhile, you’d go into another room with a bed, a mirror, and a bunch of other amenities and toys. The john would then take control of your body for 15 minutes. At least.There were rules …

Elle's friend Sarah has gotten ahold of a prototype device which allows one person to take control of another, seeing and feeling the world from another body. Told from the perspective of Elle, in this chapter Sarah takes control of her body and plays around in her room.

“I’m not sure Sarah, I’m not that desperate.”, I said.“Come on Elle! Aren’t you at least a bit curious?” Sarah whined.Body Rentals had been around for a few years now, but only recently had the price and portability of their control unit’s dropped low enough for regular people to afford them. Regular people like Sarah, who was now sitting on the floor of my room desperately trying to get me to let her try it on me.“Curious, yes.” I said “Keen for you to take control of my body? No.”“Why not? It’s perfectly safe!” Sarah pressed me. She knew I had a hard time saying no to her, and she could tell my reluctance was waning. “It’s easy as pie, all you have to do is stick the receiver to the back of your neck, and then when I put on the helmet and remote in, I get to see what you see!”“And make me do whatever you want.”“I won’t do anything weird!” she exclaimed. Sarah had been telling me all about the Body Rental kit on the way home from class. Her father worked for the company that produced them, and had brought home this new, portable version just yesterday. Sarah had snuck it out of her house -- without permission, I’m sure -- and brought it over to try it on me. Why she wanted to try out being the small mousy girl from biology, I had no idea, but the concept made me uncomfortable.See, the thing is, when you’re wearing the receiver, whoever wore the helmet had complete control over your body - as if it were their own. Sarah would be able to feel, see, and hear everything I did, and she’d also be the one behind the controls. …

Aisha volunteers for an unspecified medical research project, only to be left alone in a waiting room where absolutely nothing of interest happens to her. A fire in the building forces her to go home before she has a chance to participate in the experiment. At least that's how it seems at first.

Aisha sat impatiently in the bland, sterile room. Not literally sterile, but the spartan lack of decor and drab colouring made her feel like she was waiting in an unfurnished hospital ward. Admittedly, this was hardly surprising - she’d signed up to join some kind of mysterious medical experiment at uni after all - but it wouldn’t kill them to put in a pot plant or something. The door opened, and Aisha gratefully rose from the sole chair in the room, only to sink back down in disappointment when she was told they would be ready for her soon. Not soon enough, she thought to herself. Her leg bounced restlessly, and she began to question whether it had been worth signing up at all. Fifty bucks was fifty bucks, but if she wound up waiting here for hours she may as well have just worked a shift at some shitty little fast food place for all the good it would do her. She shivered. This wasn’t a good attitude to have. She closed her eyes, breathed in deeply and steadied herself. How did the saying go? “Patience is a virtue: Possess it if you can. Very rare in women and never in a man.” Her grandmother had taught her that. A bit mean, but she grew up in mean times. Instead of getting frustrated, Aisha decided to challenge herself to see how long she could stay perfectly still. Like a Buddhist meditation kind of thing. Just sit still, stare straight ahead and focus on her breathing. She was so focused that she almost jumped when the door opened again. Someone in scrubs poked their head in and asked how she was feeling. “Fine,” she lied, though admittedly the attempted meditation had seemed to be working for a moment. Scrubs seemed …

Everyone goes a little bit crazy when they're alone

Anita tried to make the best of her circumstances. She really did. She had more than enough food and toiletries to last the four week hard lockdown. Government cheques meant that her immediate bills were taken care of. She could do anything. She did everything. And in less than ten days she was completely burned out. Waking up with “French for Idiots” plastered to her face, Anita threw it onto the pile of discarded books in disgust. Her everything was still sore from jumping into every type of workout routine at once, and she had given up on several attempts to write, draw or paint over the past week and a half. Logging onto her socials, she found that her friends were having mixed results with their own endeavours. Everyone had advice to give of course, if only because it was an opportunity to pretend their own lives weren’t falling apart, and Anita was inclined to take the vast majority of it with a pound of salt. Something obvious someone suggested - so obvious that she had forgotten to try it at all - was meditation. That was perfect, wasn’t it? It was doing something by doing nothing. If she could get meditating down, she’d be set for the rest of lockdown as long as she remembered to eat. The soundtrack recommendations that came with the suggestion she bookmarked for later, choosing instead to focus on the basics for her first attempt. Setting an alarm for two hours in case she fell asleep, Anita settled into a comfortable sitting position on some cushions. Eyes closed. Breathe deeply. Concentrate on your sensations. Be mindful of your body. Be mindful of your thoughts. Be mindful of your breathing. The alarm went off. Anita snapped back to alertness with a sudden shock, her …