The Soul Catcher

by Rowanne Carberry

  A tug pulls me in the direction of the circle again. Something inside of me screams at me to just step over it. But I shake my head — I haven’t got what I need yet.

  “Hello,” booms the demon, making me jump. He’s looking straight at me. “Have you come to play in real life?”

  “Move out of the way,” Mitchell shouts, pulling Maria back before she’s even had a chance to step back.

  I watch as Mitchell lifts his gun, aims the barrel at the chest of the demon, and pulls the trigger.

  The resounding roar makes me clap my hands over my ears, trying to stop the ringing in them. Watching in the direction the bullet is going, I see a ripple in the air. The bullet stops in the same place Maria tried to get past, and drops to floor.

  Mitchell shouts something, but my ears are still ringing. I see Maria’s mouth start to move again and the air in front of her shimmers. I move my hands away from ears, grimacing as the ringing sound in them is joined my more maniacal laughter. Others begin throwing themselves against the barrier that’s now visible — I can only assume thanks to Maria — but no one can pass through.

  I need to do something.

  I physically shake myself and head over to Ripper, breathing a silent sigh of relief when I see him alive and unharmed.

  “Oh thank god you’re safe,” he tells me as soon as he sees me. Gripping my hand, he pulls me next to him. My heart leaps as Aidan and Farah join us in a circle. I quickly glance at them. They look okay.

  I have to remind myself to breathe properly.

  “We knew shooting him was going to be too easy, but it was worth a shot.” Ripper looks over to where Maria is standing, in the middle of Mitchell and a few members of the SWAT team. They’re forming a large protective circle around her, guns raised, fingers on the triggers ready to shoot.

  I hope none of us make them jump, I think to myself.

  “Are you ready, Jemma?” Ripper asks me.

  I glance over to Maria. She’s on her knees, a member of the SWAT team drawing something in chalk around the two of them. Their voices rise and fall together in the background as they begin to chant.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be.” I turn to Farah and try to smooth out any worries etched onto my face, but I know it won’t be possible. My heart starts pounding – again.

  “Remember: no touching, vision girl.” She says it with a smile this time, but I know it’s still something she doesn’t want me to do. “Hold out your hands.”

  I rub my hands on my trousers again, trying to rid them of the sweat that’s built up. Then I hold them out to her, cupped together to form a well. Farah drops a bead of glass into my hands; it’s crystal clear and cool to touch.

  Foreign words flow from her mouth.

  “Arde la foc în interiorul luminos

  Portalul deschis, este dreptul meu din naștere

  Demon pentru a prinde în capcană iad lui!”

  A blade appears in Farah’s hands. She nicks the end of her finger and a tiny droplet of blood springs to the surface. She squeezes it and it falls on the bead in my hand.

  It explodes inside with light and heat, images swirling around too fast to make sense of them. Closing my hand carefully around the bead, I listen as Farah repeats what I need to do.

  “You need to get as close to him as you can. Touching distance, okay?” she asks.

  Words are failing me right now so I nod.

  “No good, vision girl. You need to speak, remember?”

  I swallow the cotton that has taken residence in my mouth again. “Okay, yes. Yes, I know.”

  “As soon as you’re close enough, smash the bead. And say, deschis.”

  She makes me repeat the word a few times until I’m no longer tripping over the pronunciation. We practiced it earlier on in the day but the nerves are making it difficult. I want to slap myself, to make myself concentrate more, or to pinch myself and wake up from what’s surely just a nightmare. Maybe I’ve slipped into a coma. I laugh out loud at the thought and catch Farah’s worried expression.

  Every fibre of my body is telling me to run, to pass this on to someone else and leave, but I have a feeling — that ball of lead in my stomach — that if I do, everything will go wrong.

  A blood-curdling scream brings me out my of the trance. I spin to face the circle.

  The Soul Catcher is standing at the head of the little girl, knife in one hand, gag in the other. He’s saying something, but I can’t hear what.

  She screams again and he laughs.

  I ignore my body yelling at me and I walk towards the circle.

  Someone shouts my name but I don’t look back. My mind focused on a single point, and that is passing through the circle and making sure that little girl is safe. Flashing back to her face as it was in the picture Mitchell showed me, I can’t help but compare the similarities to my niece; I can’t leave her to him.

  Finally reaching the edge of the circle, I allow myself to look back, searching for the gaze of Ripper. As though he could feel me looking, his eyes reach mine. There’s tightness around them that wasn’t there before. Turning away, I see that the rest of the team have spread throughout the room, making their own circle around the one on the floor, their guns trained on the demon in the middle. Maria and the SWAT member are still encompassed in their chalk circle.

  Taking one last deep breath and tightening my fist, I step over the barrier. It slides over me and leaves me feeling as though I’ve been covered in slime. My fingers itch to touch my skin and see if there’s anything really there, but I fight the urge.

  There’s no sound except the rushing of my heart. Slowly, The Soul Catcher raises his face and stares at me with fire dancing in his eyes.

  “Well, well, well. Look who’s came to play.” The knife from his hand vanishes as he stalks towards me.

  “I must say... I am impressed, little girl.”

  I scoff at that. Little girl?

  His face darkens, but he continues regardless. “It’s one thing to be able to interrupt my visions; it is another to cross my circle in reality.”

  He’s getting closer to me each time. I have to force myself to stand still. My skin feels like I have a thousand tiny spiders crawling over me. My chest starts burning, making it hard to breathe. The mark feels like its pulsing, The Soul Catcher stops in his tracks, tilting his head to one side he looks at me.

  Licking his lips, he says, “This is going to be fun.”

  His mouth opens in a wide grin so I can see his teeth — they’re pointed like a shark’s tooth. I grimace and he laughs at me.

  “How do you close your mouth without cutting yourself?” I ask him. Then I groan inside; out of everything I could have asked him, that’s why I decide?

  He doesn’t answer me; he just continues to stalk towards to me.

  I risk a quick glance around the circle. Maria is now standing alongside the barrier, a bag of what looks like salt in her hands. Everyone else has guns trained in the middle of where I’m standing.

  I hope they’re a good shot.

  “Ready to play?”

  A scream escapes my throat as the Soul Catcher appears right in front of me.

  “čepel,” he shouts.

  A knife forms in his hands out of the shadows.

  He slashes at my face and I feel a sting, followed by wetness dripping down my cheek. I jump back just as he plunges the blade towards my chest. He misses me only by sheer luck.

  As he lunges towards me again, I drop the bead to the floor and smash it under my foot, screaming „deschis” as I do.

  The world explodes in white fire and chaos erupts all around.

  Hands reach around my waist and pull me back; I kick and scream, not knowing who it is. I manage to kick them in the shin and they gasp in pain and let me go. Spinning, gun raised in my hand, I see its Mitchell. For a moment I sight down the gun, finger on the trigger and then snap myself out of it. I turn back to the action and my mouth opens in horror.

  The demon is trapped in the c
entre of the portal, wrapped in a swirling vortex. His pace has slowed, but he’s still moving towards the girl.

  Ancient, evil words spill from his mouth — my ears feel like they’re going to bleed. Shadows are swirling around him, attacking the vortex and pulling tiny pieces away.

  Maria’s screaming her spell over and over again. She throws salt towards the shadows and they melt when it touches them, their cries of agony joining in the overwhelming sound.

  “Evil begone, harm no more,

  Away from this place, back to the hell you were bore,

  Demon begone, that I deplore!

  Back to hell you shall go; death you will cause no more.”

  That’s no not Maria’s voice. I turn and find the voice belongs to the person that was in the chalk circle with her. He’s advancing on the demon and his voice sings and weaves the spell.

  He’s going to be too late.

  Abandoning any sense of self-preservation, I run to the circle and grab the girl, seconds before the Soul Catcher’s hand lands on my arm. A scream tears from my throat as my flesh bubbles beneath his grip.

  A second later, red and black flames leap between the two of us, not touching me or the girl, but causing the Soul Catcher’s skin to bubble in a mirror to my own. He screams in agony; surrounded with nowhere to go.

  Looking around, I see the ghosts have gathered, inching closer. I spot the one who tried to lead me away and see he’s got another person with him. Its Maria’s mum. I run over and throw the girl into her arms before going back to the now destroyed circle.

  The black and red flames fade and the Soul Catcher begins struggling to move his arms. The portal is slowly turning translucent where the shadows have eaten away.

  Aidan inches closer, golden flames dancing in his palms this time. He throws his them outwards and the flames leap forward, wrapping the demon in fiery chains.

  The chanting is still going in the background, but everything else seems to be growing quieter as the team starts closing around the captured demon.

  It seems too quiet to me though. It’s that quiet before a storm.

  Unsure what I can do to help, I nevertheless want to be closer to the action. I keep an eye on the portal; no one else seems to have noticed that it’s getting thinner and thinner. I look for Farah and see that she’s bent over another glass bead, frantically whispering something and making gestures with her hand.

  Maybe someone else has noticed.

  Ripper, Mitchell, and someone in full SWAT gear are sneaking their way up behind the demon, guns out and aimed at his head. Aidan is concentrating on the golden chains.

  The world stops.

  As though in slow motion, the last of the portal falls away from beneath the demon’s feet and the golden chains fade.

  “čepel,” he screams at the top of his voice.

  The blade forms in his hand again and is driven straight through Ripper’s bulletproof vest. The Soul Catcher rips the blade out, and blood spurts from the wound as Ripper slowly falls to the floor.

  An inhumane sound escapes my throat. I drop my gun to the floor and race over to Ripper’s side. I don’t see or hear anything but the man on the ground in front of me. I drop to my knees beside him. Tiny shadows leap from the wound in his chest and land on his skin; where they touch, the skin bubbles and blisters. Ripper screams and tries to tear at the shadows, causing more damage to his already mutilated body.

  “Someone help me!” I scream. Tears slide down my face, the salt stinging cuts I’d forgotten about.

  Hands reach out and grip Ripper’s by the wrist, pinning him down.

  “There’s an ambulance on the way.”

  I look up. Its Maria’s mum.

  “Thank you,” I whisper through my tears.

  Pressing my hand against Ripper’s chest as hard as I can, I try to stem the bleeding. The shadows seep away as soon as I touch him, but the blood keeps flowing.

  “It’ll be okay, you’ll see,” I tell him, unsure if he can even hear me now. His eyes have lost focus and are starting to go glassy.

  Looking up, I see the demon is once again wrapped in golden chains, but the strain on Aidan’s face is evident. Seeing me watching, the Soul Catcher throws back his head and laughs. He looks to be getting stronger with each passing second.

  I pull my gaze away and look back at Ripper. A golden light begins to flow through my fingers.

  I scream again, a wordless sound. Tears drip onto his body as I try to press everything back in but I know I’m too late; his soul is slipping away. His eyes flicker and his mouth moves and for a moment I’m filled with hope. I lean my ear down to try to listen to what he’s saying.

  “Alex... my name.”

  I smile through the tears. His eyes flutter shut and the golden mist floats above his body.

  In a wordless rage, I lunge for a fallen gun and turn to aim, just as the Soul Catcher breaks free of all his bonds.

  Everything then seems to happen at once.

  Maria screams the last word of her spell. Aidan throws a ball of white fire at the demon’s chest. Farah crushes a bead beneath her feet... and I pull the trigger.

  The Soul Catcher stands laughing at us until the bullet and the ball of fire hit his chest. The impact makes him stagger backwards into the waiting portal. I aim the gun and pull the trigger again. Blood the colour of night starts pouring from his wounds. His body disintegrates into shadow as it’s pulled — piece by piece — into the portal.

  “What have you done?” a voice asks me. It’s Simon.

  I hadn’t even noticed him until then. He’s looking at me with rage; he moves forwards but then turns on his heel and runs. But not before I notice the movement in his eyes.

  All my attention turns back to Ripper. I cry out with happiness —the golden light drops back into his body, waking him with a gasp.

  “Jemma?”

  I get down on my knees next to him and gently place my lips against his.

  “I thought I’d lost you,” I tell him.

  He laughs and then clutches his chest in pain.

  “Oh god, don’t move,” I tell him. “There’s an ambulance on the way.”

  There’s more blood coming out of his chest. I look for something to press on it when a member of the SWAT team appears at my side. They put their hand over his wound and begins to mutter something in a foreign language, I know it must be the one who had been in the circle with Maria.

  Ripper reaches a hand up — despite the pain I can tell it’s causing him — and presses it to my face. “I just want to go home,” he says to me.

  “Me too.”

  I finally hear sirens in the background. The room bustles into action. Ripper’s hand drops to his side and I just sit, holding onto him. Looking around the room, I notice the ghosts are nearly all gone: there’s just one or two left. I do a double take as I spot the ghost of a little boy I instantly recognise, sitting on an old burnt out filing cabinet, swinging his legs.

  He sees me looking, smiles at me and waves, and then skips over to me.

  “I remember you,” he tells me. “You made it easier.”

  He throws his arms around my neck, freezing the skin that had only just begun to warm up. I let go of Ripper’s hand and wrap my arms around the boy’s ghost in front of me.

  “Hey, Nathaniel,” I say to him so that the others know what’s going on rather than thinking I’ve lost my mind.

  I’m about to ask him a question when a paramedic rushes over. He takes one look at Ripper and calls someone else over.

  “I need fluids! And get a stretcher.”

  The second person starts talking into their radio and soon I’m pushed out of the way as they hook Ripper to fluids. They lift him onto a stretcher and wheel him out.

  “Jemma,” he calls. I run over to his side.

  “Come with me,” he says.

  I reach down and squeeze his hand.

  One of the paramedics looks at me.

  “Judging by the state of that
wound, you’re going to need to come with us anyway. There’s enough space in the ambulance.”

  “Thank you,” I say to the paramedic. Then, turning back to Ripper, “There’s just something I need to do first. If I’m not in this ambulance, I’ll be right behind in another.”

  He nods and the paramedics wheel him out. The room is emptying quickly. There’s a body with a sheet placed over it; I look around and see that it’s not the only one. I know I need to get out of here quickly and see who else we’ve lost.

  I turn back to the little boy.

  “How are you here?” I ask him. I knew that his soul had been taken when he was murdered, and so didn’t understand how he could be here now.

  “It’s thanks to you,” he says with a childish smile on his face. “You killed it proper, not just sent him back. When it died, our souls were released.” All this he says with the innocence only a child can have.

  For the first time in what feels like forever, I smile properly. I’ve gone through living hell recently, but knowing I’ve managed to save them from further torment makes it that bit easier to bear.

  I lean down and place a kiss on Nathaniel’s cheek, my lips going briefly numb. When I look up, I see the ghost that led me here walking over.

  “Come on, Nathaniel. It’s time to leave.” He reaches out a hand and Nathaniel grabs hold of it. They walk away as the man leans down and says something to the boy. Nodding his head, Nathaniel stays where he is as the man walks back to me.

  “Thank you,” he says. “I knew you could do it, even if I didn’t think you should.”

  I turn back into a nodding dog. His voice and face are so filled with emotion that my throat closes in response and I don’t know what to say. Something about that resonates with me; a strength that I know could keep me safe.

  “It’s not over, though.”

  The words shock me but, at the same time, I knew it was all too good to be true. Simon’s dark eyes flash in my mind.

  “The one you’ve been calling the Soul Catcher didn’t get here on his own. They’ll try again.”

  I know what he’s saying is true but I just don’t want to believe.