Carpe Noctem (Patreon)

This is a take on the events of the Angel episode "Carpe Noctem" which features a bodyswap between the characters of Angel (a vampire, played by David Boreanaz) and an elderly man. If you havn't seen it, I really recommend it - it was one of my driving influences to start writing bodyswap fiction! This short story can, however, be read and understood as a standalone even if you've never seen the episode or show before!

Although his status as a vampire didn’t make him immune to pain, Angel was always quick to heal from whatever bruises or scrapes he’d earned in his most recent fight against the forces of darkness. That unfortunately couldn’t be said when it came to this most recent encounter, because the conflict hadn’t been with some demon or ghoul but rather an ordinary elderly man. The concept of a mortal man in his late seventies being able to get the best of Angel should have been laughable, but he had come at the vampire-with-a-soul in a manner that nobody else had dared try before and it had been terrifyingly effective.

A shiver ran down Angel’s spine as he took in his reflection. Even just seeing something a presence reflected back at him in a mirror was an oddity, but that the presence was actually the frail and weak body of Marcus Roscoe pushed the situation from odd and into horrifying. The wrinkled features and the desperately thin silver hair could hardly compare to just how it felt to be trapped in the elderly man’s body though. His joints ached and muscles throbbed with even the smallest of movements and whenever his heart began to race he was overwhelmed with a sense of dizziness that had almost knocked him onto his ass multiple times already. It had only been about twelve hours since he’d been trapped in the depressingly mortal body and Angel already considered it one of the most painful things he’d ever experienced.

The moment of the switch continued to play in his head on repeat. He’d heard the old man croaking out a chant in Latin - “alli permutat anima kimota” - and had felt so safe and smug in the knowledge that most common magics didn’t work on vampires. He had severely underestimated the powers that Roscoe had been playing around with though, as it was no simple enchantment but rather a complicated dark magic hex that had reached deep inside Angel and ripped out his consciousness to replace it with Marcus’. For a moment he had felt totally weightless and the next it was as if he had collided with a brick wall. Everything was suddenly heavy and painful and the mere sight of his own face smirking down at him had chilled him to the bone.

The very real collision of their heads had knocked Angel out for two whole hours and when he finally regained consciousness his head was throbbing in agony. Marcus had no idea of the strength he now possessed as a vampire and if he’d hit Angel any harder than he possibly could have even fractured his skull! He supposed he should at least be thankful that hadn’t happened. Still, it didn’t change that he was in very serious trouble. There was a clueless man walking around in the body of a vampire and that could spell disaster if it wasn’t rectified soon; Marcus would likely either get someone killed or unwittingly step out into the sun and get himself killed, taking Angel’s body with it and dooming him to live out the remainder of his days in the frail body was trapped within. That was about as far from a pleasant thought as could possibly be.

Hobbling back to the bed from the toilet was so exhausting that it may as well have been an adventure in itself. Angel was trapped within the retirement complex and had retreated back to Marcus’ apartment just to escape the condescending nurses who had clearly thought him senile and crazed when he attempted to explain that he wasn’t Marcus Roscoe and desperately needed to leave. Getting past them in his own body, or even the body of a younger man, wouldn’t have been difficult, but the frame he was trapped in could have been broken by a strong gust of wind. He was impossibly weak and it was so frustrating that he could actually feel himself welling up - imagine that, a vampire of legend like himself, crying! It truly was the strangest of days.

Carefully laying his fragile bones on the too-springy mattress, Angel let out a long exhale as exhaustion washed over him. He was severely lacking in energy all of the time and even though he knew that he desperately needed to make it back to the Hyperion Hotel and warn them that there was an imposter in their midst, the need for a few more hours of sleep was scratching away at him. The folks at Angel Investigations surely knew him well enough to identify that the man who had returned from the retirement home wasn’t actually him, didn’t they? Angel didn’t want to consider the alternative, because if they didn’t work out the truth then there was every possibility he was going to be trapped in that retirement home for a very long time...