No Way Back ?

 

Lucy—now wearing the lined face and heavy hands of her grandfather—sat hunched on the edge of the sofa, staring at the floor. The cushions felt too soft beneath her; her borrowed body felt alien and slow. She kept waiting for the moment she would wake up, but the nightmare didn’t fade.

Her grandfather, trapped in her slim young frame, hovered in the doorway. His expression—her expression—was full of sorrow. He took a breath, steadying himself.

U“Lucy,” he said quietly, “I think… we need to stop pretending. We’ve tried everything. The book, the ritual, even the priest. Nothing worked.”

She looked up at him, eyes wide with desperation. “But we have to keep trying! I can’t stay like this, Grandpa. This is my life! My friends, my future… it’s not fair.”

Her voice cracked, raw with panic. Tears slid down the weathered cheeks that weren’t hers.

He came closer, kneeling in front of the sofa so he could meet her eyes. “I know, sweetheart. I would give anything—anything—to put this right. But I don’t think we can. We’re… we’re stuck like this.”

For a long moment, only her sobbing filled the room. He reached out—his young, steady hand covering her gnarled one. The contrast made the truth even sharper.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “You shouldn’t have to carry my years. But I’ll be here with you, no matter what. We’ll face this together.”

Lucy shook her head, pressing her face into her hands. To lose her youth in a single accident—it was unbearable. And yet, beneath her despair, she could feel the weight of his guilt, and the depth of his love.

Thing was swapping back was easily done he had known had to do it all along and was going to swap them back but being young was so freeing he felt for want of a better word ‘Alive’ he could not return to his old body even if it meant betraying his granddaughter. All the fake rituals and that was not even a real priest just some local nutter her knew, he looked back at his old body crying and couldn’t help but smile.