When my daughter invited me round for tea and biscuits, I jumped at the chance. “It’s so lovely to see you again, dear. I barely saw you with Jeffrey around.” I’d never liked her ex-boyfriend. Too old for her and far too possessive. The man had given me the creeps.

“Well you won’t be seeing him again, mother,” my daughter says.

“Rawk! Polly want a body! Polly want a body!”

I laugh at her talkative pet parrot perched on her hand “And it's good to see Largo again too. He’s rather energetic today.”

“He is. He’ll go back in his cage if he can’t learn to keep his beak shut.”

“Rawk! Swap me! Swap me! Rawk!”

“Oh, he’s imitating you,” I chuckle. “He must have overheard you talking about that pet swap you were considering a few months ago. Thank goodness you never went through with it.”

“You didn’t approve?” she asked.

“Oh, it wasn’t the pet swap I objected to. It was the thought of you handing yourself over to Jeffrey for the swap. The inside you, wearing your young body like some suit.” I shudder.

“He only offered to look after it while I was vacating it.”

“So he said. But you’re far too innocent to have that old lecher inside you. Too trusting." I sip my tea. It has a strange tang to it. "But I suppose I still see you as my little angel. What happened to Jeffrey anyway?”

My daughter’s innocent smile broadens. “Oh, he jumped off a building. He seemed to think he could fly.”

A queasy feeling builds in my stomach. I glance from the agitated parrot to the eerie smile on her face. The parrot throws back its head.

“Rawk! Help me! Rawk! Help me! Mom! He stole my - rawk- stole my - rawk-!”

Jeffrey’s delicate fingers close around my daughter’s beak. “It looks like your little angel got her wings,” he says, twisting my daughter’s lips into a sneer. “Though she’s rather bird brained these days. Struggling more and more to communicate every day." He looks at me, blue eyes turning cold. "I always knew you were trying to come between me and Lydia. Now nothing can come between us. Because I am her.

"You monster. You trapped her as her bird?"

"Oh, it was her idea. I just never attended her reversal appointment. And this way she’ll always be mine." He stroked the bird's feathered head before caressing his youthful, female form with unrestrained glee. "Did you know parrots can live up to 60 years?"

My tongue feels numb, my words slurred. “Y-you fiend. I’ll… I’ll…” The queasy feeling in my stomach is building. The cup of tea tumbles from my loose fingers. I move to stand but the room spins. I slump to the floor. Jeffrey stands over me, affixing electrodes to my scalp.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be joining her soon,” he says as the sedative in the tea slips me into unconsciousness. “They’re mated pairs.”