The Soul Ripper (Twisted Souls #1)

by Cege Smith

mind, he had thought Chim’s allegations were the blustering of an old, bitter soulless. But now there was energy flowing all around them, and it felt strong, powerful, and wholly alien.

  Then Chim’s eyes flew open and his hands grasped Marius’s hands in an ironclad grip. Marius instinctively tried to pull away, but couldn’t. Chim’s fingers bit into his flesh and Marius had to bite his lip to keep from screaming. This wasn’t how Chim said things were going to go.

  Chim’s red eyes glowed and his smile turned cruel. His words got louder so that Marius could still hear them over the whistling of the wind that had started to whip through the maze.

  Marius almost doubled over as he felt a ripping pain in his chest, and this time he couldn’t hold the scream that pushed past his lips. He heard similar cries from the courtyard.

  Was this what it felt like to become ensouled? There had never been any mention of pain, especially one that felt like a white scorching heat burning him from the inside out. Marius felt like he was about to explode, and Chim didn’t look like he was going to help him. In fact, it looked like Chim was waiting now. He wore a smile of satisfaction.

  Marius felt something crawl from the heat inside his stomach up through his rib cage. It was something that didn’t belong inside of him. This couldn't be what it felt like to have a soul.

  “No,” he croaked, shaking his head. “No. I don’t want this.”

  “It’s too late, Marius,” Chim whispered. “I wasn’t lying when I said that I had been waiting for you for a long time. You will be great. You will be the key to my domination of this place. Life as these pathetic beings know it is about to end.”

  The thing slithering inside Marius was now wriggling into his brain. He knew he had made a terrible mistake. And if what Chim said was true, his world was going to pay for it.

  SAMUEL

  When Samuel stepped into the courtyard after the Lowdens, he saw the Head Master sitting on the edge of the fountain. The parents gathered at the edge of the gravel that surrounded the base, and they looked at Samuel for guidance. He motioned for them to spread out in a half circle facing the Head Master.

  This was wrong. In every other ceremony he had attended, the Head Master was always standing in front of the fountain waiting for them, and he would guide the parents into their designated spots.

  But now the Head Master still had not gotten up or even looked in their direction. Samuel stepped closer and carefully put his hand on the Head Master’s arm, even though he knew that touch was forbidden. Better to risk punishment from the Head Master later for a small offense than let the ceremony completely derail. He knew that the parents would suspect something was amiss; the McMurrays for sure because they had done this before, and the others because this deviated from the diagram included in the handbook.

  The Head Master’s face swung towards him and Samuel let out a small gasp. If the man had looked old before, he looked ancient now. His face had aged by at least twenty years. His skin hung loosely from bones that poked out at his temples and cheeks. His normally clear blue eyes looked rheumy and were covered in film.

  Samuel started to shrink back when the Head Master grabbed his hand. His grip was surprisingly strong. The Head Master stood up to his full height using Samuel’s arm as a lever, and then pushed past him. As he turned to the parents, Samuel heard the feathery whisper reach his ear.

  “I will do what I can. The rest is up to you.”

  The Head Master raised his arms to the heavens. Samuel watched the clouds swirl as if in response. He pulled the soul charms from his pocket as the Head Master closed his eyes and started the ceremonial chant. Samuel made his way to each of the three couples.

  The soul charms were crystals about the size of a marble that hung on black leather cords. The acolytes mined the crystals from a cave on the outskirts of the compound, and then the Head Master imbued them with a kind of homing beacon that guided the souls from the fountain and into the Chosen. Samuel gently put the necklace over the head of the McMurray toddler, who was standing in front of his father.

  “May your soul grant you health and a long life in service of the Light,” Samuel said. Then he moved to the Deeds. He repeated the prayer over the Deed girl. Finally, he moved to the Lowdens.

  The mother was staring at him with a panicked expression. He tried to ignore the Head Master’s words, but he knew that something was terribly wrong. He quickly repeated the prayer over the Lowden girl and then stepped back. A flash of lightning had them all looking at the sky.

  A storm was definitely approaching. Samuel had never seen anything but sunny skies on a Soul Distribution Day. It was as if nature knew that something bad was coming too. The Head Master’s chanting grew more urgent, and Samuel realized that he wasn’t saying the regular chant at all. A cold fear shot through his body.

  “Protector of the Light, hear our plea! As evil looms before us, we, your children will follow the path of Light. We will not be tempted by the call of the flesh. We will stand firm in your principles. Grant us safety from this unholy peril.”

  The Head Master is casting a protection spell. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise, and, as if they sensed the danger too, the Chosen all started to cry in unison. Suddenly Samuel heard a screech of pain that sounded like it was coming from just over the courtyard wall. His gaze locked with Malcom Lowden’s, and he watched the man’s eyes widen in fear as he looked behind Samuel at the fountain.

  Samuel was about to turn when he saw an orange and yellow flicker and smoke burst from the wall of the courtyard behind the parents. And then the wall disintegrated before his eyes. The people in front of him went flailing to the ground, and a shock of warm air hit him full force, making his eyes water. He stumbled backwards but didn't go down.

  Two soulless stepped into the courtyard; an old one whose skin was rotting away in places was leading the one Samuel himself had named Marius. But Marius didn’t look like Marius anymore. A red pulsating light was emanating from the orifices of his face, and his shirt hung open, exposing a red light that Samuel could see shining through the skin of his chest.

  Then the clouds opened and the rain began to pour down.

  MALCOM

  Everything seemed to go wrong all at the same time. Malcom had been uneasy from the moment he stepped into the courtyard and saw the Head Master seated on the fountain. Eve touched his arm, but he had patted her hand absently. From that point forward, it seemed like time became disjointed.

  When the Head Master stood to begin the ceremony, Malcom’s skin crawled when he saw the man’s face. He was well aware that magic was involved in all of the things that happened under the Office of Souls purview, but whatever the man had been dabbling in was clearly going awry. Malcom wanted to take Cameron and run. As the list of things that weren't supposed to happen grew longer, it was obvious things were out of control. But he didn’t know what else to do, especially if there was a chance that Cameron could still end up with a soul.

  He barely heard the Head Master’s words as the acolyte distributed the soul charms. For a moment he thought that he had been overreacting, regardless of the strange weather, the deviation from procedure, and the Head Master's strange behavior. Then Cameron began to cry and flail in his arms, and he heard a scream from somewhere behind him.

  If he hadn’t already been looking in the direction of the fountain, he probably would have turned around to see what was happening, damn the protocol, but then he saw the water in the pool at the fountain’s base begin to change color. He saw flecks of white dance in between flickers of red. It was the same color of red as blood. He glanced over at Eve and saw her mouth fall open. She saw it too.

  Then a blanket of heat hit Malcom’s back along with a tidal wave of pressure that shoved him forward. He rolled in midair, and swung Cameron to the side so that he didn’t land on her when he connected with the ground. He heard her cry join a chorus of grunts and groans coming from the rest of the group. He landed on his back and staring up at the
sky as the rain seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Instantly, he was soaked.

  Suddenly he heard an excited, high-pitched voice break through the din.

  “Surprise!”

  Malcom pushed to his knees. Through the dripping water in his eyes, he saw what looked like two soulless adults approaching the Head Master. They had the red eyes and the gray skin of the soulless, but that was where any similarities ended. The small one, who wore an expression that reminded Malcom of a kid about to get his favorite toy in the whole world, looked more demon than human. His short fingers were chubby and his nails were long and pointed at the ends. His ears were pointed and his skin was dark in many places. The younger soulless had a pained expression on his face, and glowed red all over. Then Malcom realized that the red light was coming from inside him.

  Malcom had no idea what the interruption meant, other than he and his family were in the wrong place at the wrong time. He felt a grip on his shoulder and felt a strong yank pull him forward to the side of the fountain. Samuel was crouched low next to the fountain and made a gesture for Malcom to be quiet. In Malcolm's arms, Cameron started to howl louder.

  Malcom looked around for Eve. It was hard to see in the rain, but then his eyes finally found her. She was lying face down just a few feet from the clawed toes of the small soulless. When the blast had send him and Cameron flying to the right, closer to Samuel and the fountain’s base, it must have sent Eve to the left, putting her almost directly in the path of the intruders. If it wasn’t for Samuel bearing down hard on his shoulder, Malcom would have tried to get to her. She wasn’t moving.

  “What’s the matter? Fountain got your tongue, Head Master?” the small soulless poked.

  “Renauld,” the Head Master said gravely. “I thought I banished you the ends of the world.”

  “Oh, you did,” the one called Renald snarled. “I did a lot of walking, and I needed a little help getting back. That's what took me so long. They don't call me Renauld anymore, either. These days you can just call me Chim. You didn’t think you’d get rid of me that easily, did you? I learned quite a lot of interesting things along the way too.”

  “You were wrong to come back here, Renauld,” the Head Master said.

  Malcom was having a hard time trying to track the conversation. All he could think about was Eve. She still wasn’t moving. He tried to shrug off Samuel’s hand, but he couldn’t. The acolyte was stronger than he looked.

  “You can’t help her now. You have to stay here,” Samuel murmured.

  “What are we supposed to do?” Malcom hissed.

  “Trust in the strength and wisdom of the Head Master,” Samuel said. “And pray to the Light.”

  With that in mind, Malcom thought for certain they were going to die.

  SAMUEL

  Samuel’s mind was racing. The only things he could think to do was try to keep clear of the confrontation unfolding in front of them, and hope that the Head Master knew what to do. When the parents and Chosen went down, Malcom Lowden and his daughter landed just a few feet away from him. He didn’t even think as he grabbed them and pulled them around the base of the fountain with him. He could tell by the wild look in the man’s eyes that he wanted to go after his wife, but given her proximity to this unknown but powerful soulless, it was too dangerous.

  Samuel was trying to take in every word of the exchange between the Head Master and Renauld. He was having a hard time believing that the soulless standing in front of him could possibly be the same Renauld from the legend, but it seemed like he was. When the soulless said that his adopted name was Chim, Samuel knew that a very elaborate trap was closing around