Soul Drifter-Chapter 6

Joey made the long, weary trek back out of Blackwell. He didn't know what else to do. He had been told he was cured, but he had been told that before. Death was creeping up behind him, and he would have to answer for all of his wrongdoings. He had murdered his brother-in-law, he ran away from his father and sister, and there was no getting away from that fact. He had no excuses.
After a long day of travel, Joey finally made it back to the tiny shack that he had secured. It wasn't much, but it kept him dry, and reasonably comfortable. He began to make himself more comfortable after the tiring and strenuous journey. Joey sat down in a chair, and closed his eyes, feeling like there was no hope left.
Suddenly, there was an aggressive knock on the door. Joey was exhausted and too stiff and sore to get up and answer the door, but there was really no need. The hasty visitor launched one more violent attack on the door, then let himself in.
"There you are!" He exclaimed. "Thought you could hide from me, did you?"
A young man barreled angrily into the room. He was somewhat well dressed, but the worn coat edges and missing buttons gave him away. He was desperate, and it showed. He wasn't afraid to bully an old man out of the little money he had left. His green eyes burned with anger, and his messy brown hair would not be tamed by the hat he had shoved on his head.
"I told you that you're in arrears and I want my money old man! If you don't cough up every penny, I'm tossing you out on the street today! Now hand it over, or it's the gutter for you!"
The young man began to shout and grew red in the face. Joey wasn't particularly bothered, and a strange notion grew in his mind. He began to smile and smiled right up in the face of the young man. This enraged him even further.
"What, you think this is a joke!? You must want me to toss you out, you old coot!"
The young man advanced on Joey as he sat in his chair. He leaned down to take hold of him, but as he did, Joey took hold of the young man's face. This startled him, but Joey didn't let go. Joey couldn't quite remember everything the fortune teller said to him at first, but then it came back to him and he recited the words in his head, kept eye contact, and focused. All of a sudden there was a blinding white light and both men collapsed to the ground.
Several hours went by, and there was no movement from either of the two men. Finally, Joey regained consciousness and began to move around. Everything was a little hazy and he felt strange. He stumbled around for a minute trying to regain his balance. Once he was able to focus, he looked down and saw the body of an old man lying on the ground quite still. "Wait," he thought, "that's not right. That's me!" Joey began to panic and started scrambling around the shack to find any kind of reflective surface. He knocked over the steamer trunk that held his belongings as he lost his balance. He crumpled to his knees. In the jumbled pile of belongings was a hand mirror and the long-dried clown makeup he had once used in his circus act. He grabbed the hand mirror and looked at his reflection. He saw the green eyes and the young face of the angry young bill collector staring back at him. The trick worked.
Joey couldn't believe that he finally found his cure. He was able to cheat death. All he had to do was swap bodies with someone younger and he would extend his life indefinitely. As the possibilities overtook him, his mind wandered back to the bill collector in his old body. He would have to keep him quiet somehow. Maybe if he wandered out of the house on his own, he would think he had dreamed it. Joey walked over to him and bent down. He was very still. He held the hand mirror in front of the other man's face to see the breath coming off him. Nothing. This was bad. In desperation, he shook him and called out to him using all sorts of disparaging remarks. To no avail. The man was dead. It looks like the already weakened body couldn't handle the shock. Now that he finally had his answer, he had already taken another life. But, surely this one was worth it. He was cruelly evicting the elderly and infirmed, and was a miserable power-hungry tyrant. "I'm sure he deserved it," Joey said to himself, still shaken.