Beyond Mortal Control (Patreon)

A six word request by patron Jayman710 who asked for "body swap turns into accidental merging".

Norman had everything planned down to perfection - or so he believed. When playing with forces beyond mortal control or understanding though, not even the perfect plan guaranteed complete success.

The idea formed in his mind the previous September when the academic year started. Norman worked as a janitor at a high school in a small town and had done so for the past twenty-six years. At fifty-four he didn’t expect that he would achieve much more with his life and that realisation had left him feeling depressed and frustrated. His own schooling days had been terrible: he’d fallen in with the wrong crowd and his grades had majorly suffered for it. Ultimately while all of his classmates left their small town to make it in the big bad world, Norman wasn’t qualified for anything more than wiping down floors and emptying trash bags, and his old principal took pity on him and offered him the janitorial position.

Over the years Norman became a superstitious man and a firm believer in the supernatural, particularly because of a number of unexplainable events he had encountered on the school premises during the later hours. As such, he soon began to consider that there might be a way he could change his fortunes in life and started researching into the occult until he found precisely what he was looking for: a spell that would allow him to switch his consciousness into the body of another man. He had the perfect target in mind too, as his brief encounters with the new Phys Ed teacher made it clear that Dustin Joshua was not a man who deserved his life. Dustin was only twenty-two and had made quite a bit of success for himself, as not only was he a recent hire of the school but he also doubled as a fitness model. Standing at just over six-foot and nearly two-hundred-and-ten pounds of sculpted muscle, it was easy to see what made him so desirable for the brands he represented. That had also been what made him so desirable to Norman, although the snide remarks and the looks of disgust that the teacher sent his way whenever they crossed paths was what really sealed the deal for the desperate janitor. He’d have felt guilty robbing any other man of their life, but for Dustin he’d feel no remorse!

The spell required a series of arcane symbols to be painted onto Norman’s forearms and was accompanied by a latin chant that he spent several weeks learning off by heart. Dustin was a physically imposing guy and Norman knew that if the other had any idea of what he was attempting then he’d end up battered and bruised. Then again, Dustin was so arrogant that he probably wouldn’t expect anybody to dare try and take his body from him, if he even lowered himself enough to believe in such impossible occurrences. As such, Norman took care to make sure his intentions were not discovered and ensured his arms were covered at all times so nobody could get suspicious of the symbols he had painted upon them. Then, once all of the students and most of the faculty had gone home, Norman made his move.

Dustin was usually one of the first members of staff tearing out of the parking lot once the final bell of the day had rung, but even he with all of his handsome charms couldn’t escape after-school detention duty and so every two weeks he was forced to stay behind for an extra hour to monitor the poor souls who had ended up being reprimanded to such an extreme. Norman had taken notice of this and knew that the perfect moment to enact his plan was after Dustin had dismissed the students but before he made it into the parking lot. There was a spot that the school’s camera system couldn’t see and it was there that Norman would surprise the teacher, leaving behind no evidence of what he had done. His heart thundered in the minutes leading up to the event but he knew this was it - this was the day he turned his life around for the better!

As expected, the moment Dustin saw Norman wiping the floors near the exit to the parking lot, the young teacher sneered at the older man. He had never been shy about expressing his disgust towards the lowly janitor and he got away with it because he always put on such a pleasant front to everybody else. Nobody wanted to believe Dustin was anything other than perfect, and it wasn’t as if Norman held any goodwill with the rest of the staff, many of whom had heard the stories about him being a loser who had flunked out of the very same school he now worked at. Nobody for a hundred miles would ever believe Norman over Dustin, but that would work in the janitor’s favour once he had switched their bodies: everybody would think the old man had finally snapped and lost his mind!

Just as Dustin was about to pass him by, Norman dropped his mop and turned to grasp the younger man by his well-muscled bicep. As the teacher exclaimed in surprise and immediately started a tirade of curses, Norman hastily muttered the latin chant under his breath and within seconds felt an incredible power coursing through every fibre of his being. Dustin evidently felt it too as his cursing ceased and his eyes bulged, a look of terror flashing across his handsome features. It was the first time Norman had ever seen anything close to vulnerability from the other man and it was nothing short of delicious to behold. The other man struggled against his grasp and although under any normal circumstances Dustin would have been able to throw him aside with ease, these were no ordinary circumstances and the two men continued to be linked as ancient magics swirled between them.

The first indication that something wasn’t going according to plan was when Norman felt himself being dragged forward and saw that his hand was no longer around Dustin’s bulging bicep but rather sinking into it! Suddenly gripped by panic, he joined Dustin in attempting to pull away but their actions were to no avail. With every passing second the two men sunk into each other further and further and within ten seconds Norman’s entire arm had vanished inside the other, pushing him uncomfortably against the other’s broad back. A strange tingling sensation had spread through both men and was even managing to stimulate them, causing Norman’s tenting pants to press up against the younger man’s rear. Pleasure soon began to take root within the duo as their entanglement continued into its next phase and even the ability to think became difficult to do. They were trapped in a tornado of emotions and sensations unlike anything either had experienced before.

Within one-hundred seconds it was all over and where the two men had once stood was now a singular figure. The man retained Dustin’s strong muscles, although they were now covered in a forest of dark hairs, including a patch poking out from the collar of his baby blue v-neck. Thick stubble had spread across his square jawline, while lines of experience settled onto the man’s features and his hair thinned out slightly. Dustin’s leaf green eyes had been replaced by the muddy puddles of Norman’s pupils, and the former janitor’s features were further present in the pronounced bridge of his nose and the tribal tattoo that had spread out across the man’s back, a relic of Norman’s early twenties.

As the dust settled on the transformation, the man realised he had regained the ability to move. He took a few tentative steps forward and back, and then felt his body up and down until his hands found the staff pass hanging from his belt. He pulled the small plastic card up to inspect and was surprised to see that it was not Dustin’s face upon the identification but rather that of the merged individual Dustin and Norman had become. Dustin’s name remained, but the date of employment was a full ten years previous, which was much more fitting for a man nearing his forties as Dusty (the nickname he could suddenly remember being given by his good pal, Principal Jay) now was.

Equal parts bewildered and excited, Dusty made his way out of the school and towards the flashy sports car he knew now belonged to him. Jay had teased him about the purchase, suggesting that it was the sign of a midlife crisis, but Dusty had laughed his friend off. “I’m about as far from a crisis as can be,” he had assured the school principal, “In fact I feel better than I ever have!” The consciences of both men had begun to blur into one and as time passed they soon forgot ever being two individuals and the memories of their former lives. Like the world around them, they only ever remembered being Dusty Mannion, the school’s handsome and charming Head of Physical Education!