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. …

Judy is an isolated shut-in who freezes up during any real-time social interation. She's worked from home her entire life, just getting by on the jobs that require no direct contact, but despite her excellent work, her inability to participate in calls is threatening her work. Now her one remaining major client is at risk unless she shows up to a meeting with his bosses in person! What should she do?

Judy didn’t know what to do. It was a state of mind she was very familiar with, though that really only made her feel worse. A lifetime of anxiety-induced indecision and a paralysing fear of social interaction had seen her grow from a withdrawn and nebbish child into the adult life of a reclusive shut-in. It was only thanks to the miracles of the modern age that she was able to find work on a freelance basis with mixed media - graphic design, sound design, programming - instead of simply wasting away in an attic somewhere. She wasn’t stupid (though anyone would have struggled to convince her of this): She had a keen eye, a deft hand and a knack for problem-solving, so long as the problem could be expressed in a short email or project brief. If only she could maintain her composure when faced with… well, another person’s face, she might have become quite successful in life. As it was, any work that required an in-person meeting or even so much as a video call caused her to shut down in such a way that she couldn’t even bring herself to decline the invitation. The resulting reputation for ghosting had hurt her job prospects, and she realised that if she didn’t do something drastic, the work might dry up entirely. Right now she had one major client that hadn’t yet written her off as a lost cause, but she could tell it was a close thing. Her work until recently had been very well received, but her contact there had recently been promoted to project manager and he had been determined to pull her up with him, despite her protests. “It’s my supervisor,” one of his earlier messages read. “Several supervisors, to be honest. They’re refusing to believe …

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 …

As newlyweds struggling to make a start in life, Lucas and Mila Cruz are astonished to learn that Mila’s late grandmother has left them the entirety of her estate on the condition that they stay at her personal villa for seven nights. It’s a strange demand, but how can they refuse?

The will had been read. The papers had been signed. Mila and Lucas Cruz stood at the entrance to the new estate - THEIR new estate -in complete, stunned silence. The property stretched out for what felt like miles in every direction - row after row of meticulously trimmed topiaries stood guard along gravel paths and around walls and columns of sandstone that shone golden in the morning light. Lucas permitted himself a quiet whistle. “Yeah,” Mila agreed. “And you really didn’t know her very well?” Lucas asked. Mila shook her head. “Barely knew she existed. Wasn’t expecting anything, really. Definitely not THIS.” Lucas nodded, the silence broken only by the sound of distant birdsong. At almost a hundred years old, Teresa De León had been the matriarch of Mila’s side of the family, now very widely dispersed around the world. Mila herself had fallen out of touch with the vast majority of her extended family overseas, until she received a summons to the reading of her grandmother’s will. “Should we go in?” Mila said eventually. Lucas shook himself awake. “Yeah. Yeah. I’ll leave the luggage here for now and just bring the keys.” They left their second-hand car parked by the fountain, looking for all the world like a chicken nugget on a wedding cake. Something to be done about that in a week’s time perhaps, but for now the incongruity would just have to stand. “How big is it?” Lucas asked as they trod the gravel path. “Big,” said Mila, almost spinning as she walked trying to catch sight of everything at once. “The executor gave me a number but, I mean… just look at the place.” “I’m looking,” Lucas agreed. “Big.” A pair of dark wooden double doors greeted them at the end of the path, flanked …

The opening couple of scenes for a slice-of-life stealth control story featuring a group of college friends. In this opening, Luna & Alphonse experiment with the technology with each other for the first time, and Luna is quite a bit bolder with it that Alphonse. It is largely ftm, from the male third person perspective.

The chilly air of Alphonse's dorm room was cut by the soft humming of a high end laptop, built more for specs than style. Alphonse himself sat hunched over, squinting at the glow of the screen in the darkness. The page he had stumbled upon was unlike anything he’d seen before, its dark background and neon lines carrying an aura of the illicit. Or at least, an aura of a programmer who used dark mode, which was always a good sign.  It was late - late enough that his roommate Quincy was out on the town, courting danger or a damsel (or both). Alphonse sighed, running a hand through his mousy brown hair as he considered the proposition before him: a chance to buy into the surreal, the impossible. Stealth Control Nanobots™ They were the stuff of whispered rumours and online conspiracy theories. The government had banned the technology long ago, citing concerns over privacy, consent, and potential for abuse. Concerns that were well founded. Even though the tech had never reached the mainstream, and was tightly controlled for government use only, there were still regular stories of leaks. It seemed like every few months some starlet would seem to lose her mind, and go masturbate in public, or dance nude on a balcony. Stealth control was always blamed, and tighter controls always followed. Alphonse wondered how many of these cases were real – and how many times a drugged up rock star would just blame their latest bender on stealth control. “It wasn’t me! It was just my body!” Still, if they were real… well, basic logic would dictate for every case you heard about, there were probably hundreds of people being controlled in ways that weren’t overt enough to make the news. And if that were true, then …

A demon wearing the form of a young college student arrives at the residence of his host with a sinister purpose.  Will he succeed in passing himself off as the student and complete his objective or will her friends suspect something and attempt to thwart the demon? 

Andras opened the door to his new living space to find the roommate of his host body not inside. Which was a blessing as it would give him the opportunity to acquaint himself with the space before having to speak to the girl. According to the information pack that Idsalis put together. his host body, Lena, lived with a girl named Sarah. It said they have been friends for a very long time so he had to be the most careful around her. Even though it was a slim chance anyone would guess what was happening on the island, he couldn’t raise any questions about the island lest its secrets get exposed. He crossed the threshold into the room and set Lena’s luggage down next to her bed. The room was quite full, the floor plan was a standard rectangle with two beds in either corner of the far wall. A single window sat in the very center of the same wall with a desk underneath and a nightstand on either side of it occupied the space between it and the bed. The rest of the room was filled with other furniture like dressers, a wardrobe, some shelves decorated with various collectibles and books and finally a full length mirror leaned up against the wall. He moved over to the dresser on the side of Lenas bed and rifled through it finding mostly clothes and underwear in the draws but the top draw contained mostly school books but most importantly, Lenas Laptop. Closing the drawer and taking the laptop over to the desk he set it down and opened it up. This would give him some much needed insight into his host, as the Idsalis was only able to gather basic information in the time he had when putting together …

The legalisation and regulation of AI-generated content resulted in a digital entertainment renaissance, with advances in digital assistants and sensory feedback being the crown jewels of the movement. Strict limits on content ensure that published media poses no danger to the health or morals of the public, but clever players will always find ways to bypass any limits, regardless of the consequences.

Nick threw the headset aside, choking for air and covered in sweat. The tech-heads weren’t kidding: This shit was wild. Thirty years ago, pearl-clutching conservatives would have a televised fit over some pixelated gore, or the kind of blocky nipples that an etch-a-sketch would sneer at. 4K graphics and VR would have probably given those people an aneurysm. Nick had waded waist-deep through the entrails of demons and fondled every physics-simulated pair of breasts he could fit on his bank of SSDs, so he considered himself fairly inured to entertainment technology’s extremes. He had never been more excited to be proven wrong. “An authentic execution simulation created using the realtime biometrics of death row inmates.” Nick had assumed that both the sales pitch for the Nerve and overwhelmingly positive reviews were hyperbole. Sure, the graphics were basically photoreal and the sound was perfect too, but the best he had initially expected was his vision to go blurry while the audio muffed itself out. What he hadn’t expected was the very real sensation of his muscles locking up, his heart stopping and every organ in his body being slowly starved of oxygen. Artificial intelligence had refined media fidelity until there were no more pixels to conquer, but neural interfacing was an entirely experimental and thoroughly illegal practice. Western governments had banned its use immediately, on account of the prototypes’ frequently frying the bodies and brains of test subjects. However, that was an open invitation to less scrupulous nations to literally sell the suffering of their own people for a fee. And not just suffering, either: As always, the runaway seller was sex. Nick looked at the small pile of digital experiences he’d already tried: Mostly visceral adrenaline trips. The execution recording had come recommended by one of his edgier friends, but …

A hacker accidentally transfers his consciousness into a milf.

Author's note: This story is connected to the Shudder universe. You do not have to read Shudder first to understand it, but it will help you appreciate some of the characters you'll meet along the way.  In the near future, it wasn't a third world war that threatened to end humanity. It was the internal violence and unrest within each country that almost lead to the extinction of mankind. The state of the world under the control of increasingly corrupt politicians and dictators had led to the forming of a few peaceful protests. Those few had become dozens and then hundreds and thousands and the word peaceful was soon abandoned. Civil wars sprang up everywhere and leaders worldwide were brought down. Millions of lives were lost and those left when the dust settled wondered how long it would be until it all happened again. Charismatic leaders of science and technology stepped in with a way that could end mankind's destructive cycle. Corporations, sensing opportunity, funded research that promised to put a stop to the violent tendencies of mankind. This was done in exchange for information vital to increasing their profit margins. They promised peace, as long as everyone was willing to part with their privacy. Most were still shell shocked enough from the recent atrocities that they readily agreed if it meant an end to crime and war. Corporations swayed dissenters by offering discounts on their products. Part with your privacy and save a dollar. With this logic in mind, a permanent solution was made to better manage a potentially volatile populace. Everyone that had supported this new endeavor received free of charge exciting new cybernetic enhancements. People were opened up and chips and circuits were added to brain matter and optic nerves. Glasses were no longer needed and cancer …

A long time bodyhopper finds a person he can't possess.

Derek was about to have a problem. He was in the middle of class when his lifelong crush Amy, short brown hair, soft, sweet Amy, walked in and handed the teacher a note, then came to sit in the seat in front of him on the right far side. He didn't miss any of her movements and she seemed to glide towards him, her chest bouncing more than usual. He wasn't complaining, but that was different.Right before she sat, their eyes met. She smiled slyly, then slowly, purposefully, lowered her gaze to her breasts, and gave them a little shake, and then laughed at the reaction on Derek's face. That was the moment when Derek realized Amy wasn't wearing a bra. This was way out of the norm for Amy. She was about as straight laced and conservative as they come. She rarely dated, and if she did, no one ever got anywhere. She was easily the most sought after girl in his school. Derek assumed she was probably waiting to cut loose in college as soon as she got away from her parents.College. Right. He needed to pay attention. This was easily his worst subject and he needed to focus up. It was his senior year and a scholarship was his only shot at getting into college. He had turned 18 a month ago and had decided he need to get serious about planning for his future. But Amy's swaying breasts kept jutting into his memory, blocking out the lesson from the teacher's mouth.If it wasn't Amy's breasts, he was thinking about the teacher's mouth. Mrs. Darcy was discussing the industrial revolution at the front of the classroom. She was a knockout with bright red hair and the definition of an hour glass figure. Between Amy …