Souls

by Kahilah Harry

  Caspian tsked and pulled at his cloak. Was he nervous? “Dmitri, I am not a fool. I know her memories are gone for now. Just like I also know that you are trying to find a way to restore her memories. Because of that, I have to eliminate her.”

  I gasped quietly at his statement, my heart dropping. The corners of my eyes stung, and I blinked rapidly, not wanting the tears to fall for him. It hurt, but I would rather channel the anger that was building up. I pointed my finger at Caspian. “You lied to me?” I questioned angrily, my face scrunching up with fury and hurt.

  He chuckled lightly, which stung even more. “Of course, I did. You didn’t really think I cared about you, right?” He raised an eyebrow, and all I saw was red.

  I lunged at him but was stopped by an arm wrapping around my waist, pulling me back. “Let me go! I’m going to destroy him!” I screamed, arms outstretched, and hands curled into claws at Caspian. I couldn’t believe him. I valued my friendships dearly, like family, and the fact that he had tossed me aside like trash and wanted to end my life made me want to break down. I didn’t understand how he could hate me so much.

  “Meadow, stop fighting me. You are in no way equipped to fight him. He will kill you,” Dmitri whispered in my ear.

  I kept trying to get out of his grasp anyway, with no luck, of course.

  “Stop it! Look at his hands. He’s starving,” Dmitri whispered fiercely and so low I almost missed it.

  I looked at Caspian’s hands and stopped moving. I realized why Caspian kept moving around, agitated and twitchy. His hands looked normal at first glance, but once Dmitri brought it to my attention, I saw the purple streaks in his veins, covering the outer part of his hands, disappearing up his cloak sleeves.

  I couldn’t see his neck because his cloak covered it, but if I could, the veins in his neck would probably be purple as well. I was in slight awe from actually seeing that up close. Dmitri moved me behind him and blocked my view of Caspian. I almost growled in frustration.

  “Give it up, Caspian. It’s over,” Dmitri told him in a steady voice.

  Caspian laughed and stopped pacing. He squared his shoulders, and I moved to Dmitri’s side. “I am not going anywhere.” His eyes dared Dmitri to challenge him. Caspian wasn’t going down without a fight, and there was nowhere to escape without Caspian catching me.

  Good job, Meadow, what a position to put yourself in, huh?

  “If you won’t come willingly, I will have to kill you,” Dmitri warned him.

  Caspian laughed again, rubbing his chin between his fingers. “Bring it on, Dmitri,” Caspian growled and lunged at him. Dmitri shoved me out of the way.

  Caspian was throwing jabs at Dmitri, missing every time. Dmitri elegantly jumped and slammed his foot into the side of Caspian’s head, sending him into the glass window. I flinched. That had to hurt. But the impact didn’t seem to bother him as he picked himself up from the floor. The glass surprisingly didn’t shatter from the force.

  “Oh, you want to play? Let’s play!” Caspian lifted his arms sharply, and a noise to my right caught my attention. My jaw dropped as the laptop hovered in the air. Caspian had abilities like Dmitri.

  Of course he did. He was the one who held Rachel and Victor up in the air. I wondered if she was okay. Wait—how did he take me to the interrogation room at the same time? Getting out of my thoughts, I watched as Caspian jerked his arm back and clenched his fist, hurling the laptop Dmitri’s way.

  14

  Dmitri teleported out of the way. He appeared behind Caspian and wrapped his arm around his neck in a chokehold. The laptop crashed to the floor. The only other sounds in the room were my heavy breathing and Caspian’s gasps for air.

  “I’m not letting go until you confirm that you will come willingly,” Dmitri growled. He grabbed his left wrist with the right hand, tightening his hold. Caspian stood there with a stubborn look on his face, unflinching. But a quick look of panic crossed his face. He was uncomfortable, but didn’t want to look weak.

  “Caspian, do it, or I will have to put you down,” Dmitri warned when Caspian made no move to agree.

  Caspian’s jaw ticked, and after a few seconds of silence, he finally tapped Dmitri’s arm, indicating he agreed.

  Dmitri slowly let him go and walked around, facing him. “Grab what you need and come with me quietly. You know where you’re going, and you won’t be out for a long time.”

  Caspian scoffed, walking past Dmitri to get to his desk.

  Dmitri angled his body to follow Caspian as he walked, and I glanced at his waist, eyeing the dagger. The anger I felt inside only grew as I thought about what I could do with it. Before I could talk myself out of it, I grabbed the dagger.

  “Monster!” I raised my arm to stab Caspian in the chest. His hand flickered before my arm could come down, and the dagger was now in his hand. His other hand shot out, I heard a crash, and Dmitri groaned.

  Caspian tsked, grabbed my shoulder, and shoved the dagger into my stomach. The initial pain I experienced when the dagger sliced cleanly through my abdomen was a type of pain that I had never experienced before. I couldn’t comprehend what I was feeling. My throat started closing up. I couldn’t breathe, and I gagged from the uncomfortable sensation of thin liquid sliding up my throat. But nothing came out of my mouth.

  My hands flew to the dagger still inside of me. I stared in awe as the blue substance crawled up my chest, followed by a white substance. A chill settled directly in the middle of my chest. I blinked as my vision started to blur, and I looked up to see that Caspian was gone, and Dmitri replaced him. His arms were jerking forward toward the elevator.

  He stopped and turned to me, eyes wild, and his lips were moving. I couldn’t hear anything coming out of his mouth. Why did he seem to be freaking out? Caspian was gone, so we were both safe, right? Dmitri started clapping in my face.

  What is he doing? I suddenly got tired, so I closed my eyes so I could sleep. There was another clap, and my eyes snapped open. What is his problem? I just wanted to take a quick nap. He looked like he was shouting something. Only part of it reached my ears.

  He grabbed my shoulders. “… don’t touch it! Open your eyes! Stay with me!” Don’t touch what?

  I looked down. The ornate handle of the dagger protruded from my abdomen. It finally clicked. A weird sound came out of nowhere, and I looked around frantically for the source.

  “Meadow! Stop screaming!” Dmitri yelled.

  That was me? I couldn’t breathe. I clutched my throat and stared at Dmitri wide-eyed. My lids got heavy, and I really wanted to take a nap. So I closed my eyes, and darkness surrounded me, all-consuming.

  After what felt like a minute later, I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings, confused. How did I end up in my loft? I was just with Dmitri at…I looked down and saw that I was lying on my couch. Weird. I sat up and blinked, rubbing my eyes. Bad habit, I know. When I opened my eyes again, Dmitri was standing in front of me, his back toward me.

  “Oh, thank god. What happened? One minute we’re in that building with Caspian, and the next minute, we’re in my loft? How did we get here?” I asked him, stretching out my limbs. I waited for him to answer, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t even move. He looked…frozen?

  “Dmitri?” I called out his name, and he suddenly started moving, but not toward me. I was about to speak again, but he beat me to it.

  “You really don’t remember me?” he asked, but his back was still facing me. I scrunched my brows in confusion.

  “What are you talking about? I know who you are now,” I responded. Why wasn’t he facing me? I walked closer to him and reached out to grab his shoulder, but my hand went right through it. What the…what was this? He stepped forward, and I looked over his shoulder to see what had his attention and choked on a gasp.

  It was me. But how? I looked back and forth between the other me and Dmitri. The outfit I was wearing looked familiar.

  I squinted. It was the outfit from the other day when I woke up in
bed in my work clothes…was it a dream? This had to be a dream.

  I started walking to my other self to try and figure out what was going on. Everything around me began to move quickly before I reached myself, as if someone clicked the fast forward button.

  “What is happening?!” I screamed into the air. I closed my eyes and covered my ears as the wind howled around me. Where did this wind even come from? I waited until everything seemed to stop moving, removed my hands from my ears, and slowly peeled my eyes open, taking in the scenery.

  I was on a beach of some kind, water surrounding the area. The water seemed to go on forever, making me assume I was on an island. How did I get there, though? Was this another dream? My dreams were never this vivid. The sun was setting, creating a beautiful pink-orange hue in the sky. I heard a yell and turned to my right. Dmitri, Dax, Rita, Axel, and…Caspian? They ran along the beach. There was also another female with them, but I didn’t know who she was. She had long, inky black hair that flowed down her back, tied in a ponytail, her skin a beautiful dark chestnut color. All of them waved their arms, screaming as they ran. I couldn’t hear clearly. Walking a little closer, I tried to catch what they were saying.

  “Stop!”

  “Don’t do it!”

  “No, please don’t!”

  I turned to see what or who they were running after. It was a woman with dark auburn hair, dressed in a black, long-sleeved robe that buttoned all the way to her feet. It was hard to see who it was from my position, but I didn’t want to expose myself.

  The woman raised her arms, the black fabric spreading out like wings. She didn’t seem to be aware of the group running toward her. Her eyes turned a liquid gold color, and she jumped up in the air. She hovered as the wind tousled her long hair.

  I watched in awe as her auburn hair started turning black, and she raised her arms again, a smoky black and purple trail following her movements. The colored smoke wrapped around her body protectively, and the sky darkened, thunder making its presence known.

  All of them kept shouting, and before anything else happened, everything started moving in fast forward like before. I started losing consciousness, and the last words I heard from the dream left my blood cold.

  “Meadow! Don’t do it!”

  Me? Was that really me? How?

  I blacked out.

  I was swimming, but I wasn’t in water. It was hot, dry, and black everywhere.

  “Will she be okay if you take it out?” I heard someone ask. It sounded like Dax.

  “Who cares,” someone else muttered. Rita. Of course.

  “I’m not sure, but we can’t just leave it in there.”

  Mom? Was that my mom? What was she doing? I haven’t seen her in a while, I need to say hi. I tried to move, but nothing happened. Something shifted in my lower abdomen, and icy fire shot up my chest, making it hard for me to breathe. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was in my abdomen. A burning sensation started off like a fire but turned into what I thought frostbite would feel like. I let out a bloodcurdling scream.

  “Hold her down!” a voice yelled. Hands pushed my shoulders down, and more hands held my legs still. I didn’t feel myself move, so I didn’t know why they were locking me down in place.

  “Why does she keep whispering that?” Someone asked, and another person sighed. I tried to figure out who was speaking, but I couldn’t get past the darkness, the water, to let them know that I was in so much pain.

  “You need to wake her up right now.” That was Dmitri.

  “Kid, I know what I’m doing. This is my daughter.”

  I stirred. That was definitely my mom. I tried to speak, but my lips were sealed shut, unmoving.

  “Be still, Meadow. I’m almost done,” my mom whispered in my ear. Nothing happened, but it was quiet again. The pain from my abdomen was gone. There was tugging on my belly, but other than that, I didn’t feel anything.

  “Okay, she’s good. Wake.”

  The word was whispered in my ear, and the pressure in my chest slowly started going away. I moved my lips, and they actually parted for me. My eyelids were super heavy, making my eyeballs roll from how hard I was trying to open them.

  I paused, waiting for the feeling to go away. When the pressure seemed to be gone, I tried to open my eyes again. I squinted from the light that shone directly in my eyes.

  “Oops, sorry.”

  The light went away, and I blinked a couple of times as I stared at the ceiling. A familiar face came into view, soft brown eyes warm and inviting.

  “Mom!” I shot up and grabbed her, crushing her into a hug. She chuckled and wrapped her arms around me, hugging me back just as hard. I inhaled the sugar-cookie scent she always wore and it comforted me.

  She pulled back and wiped a tear from her eye, helping me sit up on the couch.

  “Don’t ever scare me like that again, you hear me?” She warned but had a huge smile of relief on her face.

  I smiled back and sank into the couch, exhausted. “I won’t, mom.” I laughed lightly and looked down. My whole abdomen was wrapped in gauze, and I was wearing a sports bra and sweatpants. “Who changed my clothes, and what exactly happened? I only remember pieces.” I stretched, wincing at how sore I was.

  She blew out a breath and got up from the floor, looking over my head. “I changed your clothes, but I’m not sure what happened. Dmitri, could you explain to her what exactly happened? You can give her more details than I would be able to.”

  I turned around to see Dmitri and Dax standing behind the couch. Dax had a worried look on his face, and Dmitri had his typical stoic expression. He nodded at my mom, and she patted my knee and left the room.

  Dax looked back and forth between Dmitri and me and let out an awkward chuckle. “Uh, yeah, I’m gonna go tracking with the rest of them,” he muttered to Dmitri and gave me a reassuring smile as he walked backward toward the door.

  Once he was gone, the tension in the room rose like heat. I slowly raised my eyes to him, regretting my decision immediately. He was glaring at me with such intensity, I was surprised I didn’t disintegrate right there on the spot.

  He made his way around the couch and stopped when he was standing directly in front of me. I twisted my lips to the side and glanced down before looking back up, staring him down. My stomach turned from knowing he was totally furious with me, but I made sure not to let it show in my eyes or face.

  “Why, Meadow?” He finally spoke, his deep voice thick with his accent. It wasn’t usually so noticeable, but it got thicker when he was emotional in any kind of way. I sighed and tried not to roll my eyes.

  “Because I wanted to.” I crossed my arms over my chest, challenging him.

  He sighed, rubbing his forehead with his thumb and index finger. He looked around and sat in the rocking chair across from where I was sitting, a hand cupping the side of his face. He stared at me and didn’t say a word, his gray eyes piercing. He looked a little worn out.

  “Look, I know you’re trying to protect me for whatever reason, but I don’t do well with strangers trying to tell me what to do. I can take care of myself,” I finally said after he said nothing to my response. He leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes. He mumbled something, but it was too low for me to hear.

  “What are you saying?” I asked, getting frustrated.

  “I’m not a stranger,” he mumbled again, but this time loud enough for me to hear.

  “That’s what you tell me, but how am I supposed to know that?” I threw my arms up in the air. “I believe we had some sort of connection, but I like information. Some evidence would be nice, at least.”

  “You will know soon when I figure out a way to get your memories back.”

  “And when will that be? Because I’m tired of waiting for my lost memories to come back.” I rolled my eyes, leaning back into the couch.

  He pressed his lips into a thin line. “Patience is key,” he responded, eyes still closed. He was relaxed as if he wanted to sleep. This w
asn’t something to have patience for. I wanted to know now.

  I settled back into the couch, softly rubbing the gauze where my wound was located. Dmitri didn’t even explain what happened like he was supposed to. “So, what happened in the office? You still didn’t tell me anything. I only remember bits and pieces.”

  He sighed heavily and groaned softly. “You decided to do something idiotic and go after the person who is trying to kill you, and almost died when he stabbed you with the dagger.” His eyes snapped open, and his face darkened at the memory. “You’re lucky your mom knows how to heal.”

  I quickly perked up at the mention of my mom. “Wait,” I started, shaking my head. “How did you even find my mom? Does she know about you guys?” I sat up slowly, careful not to shift the gauze too much. There was no way she didn’t know if she somehow healed me from what the dagger did to me. And how did he even know my mom and where I used to live?

  He sighed. His eyes raised to mine, and the look there gave me my answer before he even responded. She did know. He nodded, barely, but enough to confirm. I huffed. How did she know about all of this, but never told me a thing?

  “Before you leave and go off on Maze, remember that whatever she has done was to protect you. Don’t be too mad at her.” He got up and walked to where I was sitting.

  I stood up next to him, not sure how I really felt. “How could I not be mad? This is my life we’re talking about, you know. I just want to understand. That’s it. I’m so tired of this guessing game.” My face scrunched up, and the sides of my eyes tingled. My chest squeezed, and I took in a deep breath, willing my tears not to fall. I couldn’t break down in front of him. I wouldn’t.

  Dmitri walked closer to me, his hand curled into a fist at his side. He unclenched it and moved it up, seemingly hesitant.

  I discreetly wiped the side of my eyes before tears could fall and turned so Dmitri wouldn’t see my face.

  He did the unexpected and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into his chest.