Lost Souls

by Wendy J. Shores

  “Don’t thank me,” she laughed. “Fred has been looking for some way to get involved and he took this project over almost as soon as he heard about it. He and the others have been going almost nonstop since you left. Remember Kaske? He has also been here since you left. Aguta, his daughter has been in her element running back and forth with drinks and sandwiches, basking in the attention they give her when she brings them things. This mission has given everyone something to look forward to. They are all so excited and willing to do whatever is needed of them, and so am I Dalton. All you need to do is ask and each of us will do what we can to help.”

  Dalton felt so humbled. He asked Amelia if he could have a word with her in private and they moved away from the crowd of people who either stood waiting their turn to help or stood watching the activity, so they could talk quietly amongst themselves. As he told her about the dream, a deep crease burrowed its way between her brows and a look of concern crossed her face.

  “I don’t like it Dalton, I don’t like it one bit. Snakes are never a good omen and I doubt that fire ants are either. I don’t know what to make of it but I think we need to be careful.”

  Dalton agreed and again ran over the dream in his mind. Was he forgetting something? He was sure he wasn’t. At this point, the best he could do was to stay and be sure the progress on the path continued. He asked Amelia if she thought some of the men would be willing to work through the night.

  “Of course they would.” She replied. “Like I told you before, we’re all anxious to get back to our home and to see our loved ones. God has told us we will all be reunited when it’s time regardless of the years that have passed. That thought alone would be enough to keep everyone going. Some of the villagers can hold up torches and light the way as they go.”

  Dalton sighed in relief. He knew how important this was. Although it was a dream, he was sure that Marissa had found a way to come to him, that it was more than just a dream, it was like a prophecy. He knew she was coming, felt it deep in his soul but the excitement was catchy and he found himself itching to help despite the sores on his hands. He shook his head in frustration, angry with himself for not being able to do more but resigned himself to the fact that he couldn’t. He would have to settle for being their moral support for now and with that he went to find Aguta to see if he could help her pass out refreshments to the men who were working so hard clearing the trees. At least it was something and it would keep his mind off of his handicap for now. He seen her laughing and twirling in the meadow just east of where they were clearing the path. Her laugh tinkled like wind chimes and he felt the tug of a smile pull his lips as he watched her. How wonderful to be so carefree and light hearted. Not a trouble in the world. He envied her that freedom for a spit second and then it was gone. He knew his role in this and he knew how important it was, and he also knew that if he didn’t stick to the plan, all would be lost. Not just for him, but for them all, Aguta included. He would not let them down. He refused to fail. He would give all it took to get them home once again.

  ***

  DEATH CIRCLED AROUND and around, wondering where the girl had gotten to. She had just been in his sights moments before. He’d turned to send a piece of himself after one of the humans whose time had come and when he’d turned back around, she was gone. She couldn’t have disappeared that quickly; it had only been a few seconds, a minute at most. He swallowed down a lump that seemed stuck in his throat, something he was totally unfamiliar with, something called panic. Swiftly he flew back and forth, causing near pandemonium in the humans who could feel his presence even though they couldn’t see him. It was like the proverbial saying “Someone walked over my grave..” and he could see them rubbing their arms, looking skyward as if something were going to drop from the heavens and crush them. They started looking at each other suspiciously and became wary. If Death didn’t have such a big problem right now, he would be enjoying this immensely. He had always loved instilling chaos and the more he could toy with them the better he liked it. But now, he had no time for enjoyment. He had to find the girl! He rose above the city, like a fog rising from the ground and added to the uncomfortable feeling the humans were already feeling. He rose high enough to have a bird’s eye view of the area and still he could not see her. Worse, he couldn’t sense her. He couldn’t sense her because of the damned ring. It had been designed to protect the wearer which he found unfair. If he hadn’t pulled that stunt in the beginning, even if he wouldn’t have been caught pulling that stunt, none of this would be happening now. He wouldn’t be worried about his survival and he wouldn’t have to be worrying about that damn girl.

  He was momentarily distracted as he seen the piece of himself moving in for the death. A toddler innocently riding her new pink bicycle too close to the edge of the sidewalk, her mother distracted talking over the fence to a neighbor, and doesn’t see the furniture store truck out on a delivery barreling down the street ten miles an hour faster than the posted speed. The child spotted a colorful wrapper in the street and squealed in delight. “Candy!” the toddler cried peddling too close to the edge of the curb, toppling over. Then everything happened at once. The driver glanced over at his clipboard to double check the delivery address and didn’t see the child headed towards the curb. He didn’t hear the child let out a frightened cry as she fell from the bicycle, didn’t see as the mother finally turns, mere seconds too late, to check on her child. The gut wrenching scream that issued forth from the mother as she seen the truck flying towards her daughter, now lying in the street crying, is heard two blocks away.

  The truck driver felt a slight bump as his front tire split the child’s head like a pumpkin and he slammed on his breaks far too late, finally noticing the toppled bicycle lying in the street in his rear view mirror. A sick feeling began in his stomach and he threw open the door of the truck to heave violently into the street as his lunch made its way back up and out of his body and his mind put two and two together, realizing what had just happened. The mother stayed where she was, unable to move and not likely wanting to, as all she could see were her daughters’ legs twitching while the rest of her lay under the trucks back tire. Death promptly turned all of his attention to the bewildered toddler who now stood at the edge of the street; thumb jammed into her mouth watching her mother cry, the truck driver throwing up, the neighbor with her hand covering her mouth just standing there staring, and she doesn’t quite know what to do. The piece of Death that had been sent for her extended his hand and a small red ball appeared. She looked at him and seen something quite different than what other people generally see. The child saw an angel, a small playmate with wings and a halo who was offering her a toy. Babbling with joy and forgetting the scene behind her, she toddles over to him and he gently lifts her up and takes her to the waiting place where they all go until the day their fate is decided.

  He wasn’t always cruel. There were times when Death was the only kindness a person might have known in their whole life. On the other hand, there were times he took great pleasure out of being someone’s worst nightmare. The piece of Death that had dealt with the toddler returned to its host and melded back into the hole it had left, leaving no sign it had ever been gone. Everything was as it should be. Once again, Death felt complete, or at least as complete as he’d been before he’d sent the chunk of himself to do its job. With the population of humans now growing in leaps and bounds, Death was stretched thin and had to send out bits of himself almost every second, sometimes even sending multiple pieces of himself out to deal with disasters, whether they were manmade or acts of nature. Disease has taken its toll, the same as always, and as one disease was cured, another took its place. Accidents, sickness, suicide, homicide, fire, drowning, poisoning, war, old age, the list was never ending although there were more and more people dying from old age with the advances in technology. Just a hundred years ago, old age was thirty five to forty, now you were just hitting middle age by then. Women were just starting families which had taken the back
seat to careers for them. Things sure had changed since way back when Eve had made that fatal mistake and had eaten the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. A rare smile spread slowly as he remembered. How easy it had been for him to convince her that God, or the “Other” as he liked to call Him, was keeping something from them and that He wanted to keep all of the knowledge for Himself. Well it had been the truth at the time! He might have had to embellish it just a little but in the end, it had been her choice. Oh how angry the Other had been. He’d planned to take his time building this race, not being forced into allowing them to procreate on their own so soon. He’d been trying to create the perfect race. A race of love and peace and all of that garbage the Other had always stood for. That was when the Most High had gotten so angry with him and had threatened him and had made up the new rules for this stupid game. That was when he’d devised this method of getting rid of him and of making him the ruler of Death. He wasn’t just the ruler of death, he was Death. For all of those who perished now, it was he who was there to cross them over and to guide them to where they were supposed to be. Like a common slave! Wasn’t it enough that the Other had taken his legs and had forever cursed him to crawl on the ground like a snail?! Wasn’t it enough that he had been cursed above all livestock and wild animals? That he had to eat dust all the days of his life? Wasn’t that enough to bear? No! Then the Most High had to step in and put forth his punishment as well and had made him the bearer of Death. If the stupid woman would have just eaten from the other tree first, he wouldn’t be in this predicament. They would have assured themselves eternal life rather than knowledge, which could have come after they had eaten from the Tree of Life. He remembered how free he’d been before being tethered to these nasty humans. Free to explore the universe and to travel from one universe to another, never staying too long in any one for there was far too much to see. Now he was chained here with no way out until the game was done. There was a good chance he would be gone, taken piece by piece by these humans who had somehow found a way to cheat him, who had found a way to cheat Death! He’d been forced to watch as pieces of himself left and never came back. He had been forced to watch as the holes that were now gaping all over his body had begun to wither and die as well, leaving fewer and fewer pieces of himself to send out. If only he could stay in his celestial form, the pieces that were missing would be so infamously small, it wouldn’t matter, for he was as large as a galaxy in that form, as large as TEN galaxies in that form, but since he had been forced to take a spiritual form, he was losing himself fast. At first it had been such a small, gradual disappearance, that it had taken him hundreds of years to even notice, but once he did, it went so fast it was shocking. Death turned and licked the skin where the piece of him had returned and already 3 more were gone with a fourth getting ready to make its departure. He had rebelled when he had found out that the Most High had given the Other the ability to use the ring and felt it was an unfair advantage. As long as the wearer was in possession of the ring, they didn’t even have to be wearing it to be protected. How was he ever supposed to destroy the person in possession?! He knew there was a way, there always was with things like this, but the Most High did not have to divulge that information to him. When he had conferred with the Most High, it was agreed that because of his interference with the Other in enticing the woman to eat from the tree, he was to have no help whatsoever from any of them. So here he was, slowly disappearing chunk by chunk with no recourse. If he failed in his appointed job as Death, he would be destroyed by the Most High so really, how could he win? It looked like a lost cause no matter what he did.

  Just as he was about to give up, the aura caught his attention. It was the aura of a rainbow and he knew with no mistake, it was the aura of the ring. Off he flew once again in pursuit of the girl and her companions. Eventually, he would find ways to make all of them pay.

  ***

  MARISSA AWOKE TO being shaken like a rag doll. Momentarily confused and disoriented, she pushed at the hand that was grabbing her shoulder and shoved it away. As her eyes opened and Raaida’s face came into focus, she pulled her hand back and mumbled an apology.

  “You were dreaming,” she stated.

  Marissa let her mind drift back to her dream and smiled. “Yes, I was.” She replied. “I was dreaming of Dalton and telling him of the things I need for him to do to prepare for our arrival. It was almost as if he could really hear me, isn’t that strange?”

  “He could hear you.” Raaida said. “As long as you are wearing the ring, you can communicate with him when you sleep. Did you tell him to prepare the path?”

  “Yes, but although I relayed this to him, I don’t know why I did… I really wish someone would just tell me what is going on!” snipped Marissa who by this time was getting frustrated and just a little angry at being left out of the loop for so long. Everyone was good at telling her what to do but no one was telling her why she was doing what she did!

  Raaida sighed and leaned her head back against the headrest.

  “Child,” she began. “Child, this is a difficult thing to explain to you, more difficult than you can imagine. Is it not suffice to say it is imperative that we get to him and that the fate of the whole world is relying on us to do just that?”

  Marissa snorted.

  “The fate of the world? Relying on us? That’s just crazy! What, do we have magical powers or something that we can all of a sudden attain world peace and fix all of the problems that need to be resolved? What are you talking about here Raaida? It’s time all of this comes out in the open so I can at least know what I am doing this for. So I can have a choice in whether I want to participate or not! I know Dalton is part of it and if it weren’t for that I would have called the mental health authorities long ago and had the two of you locked up in a padded cell. I am tired of asking questions and not getting any answers. I just went through a year of that and I am finished taking orders from people who don’t want to play fair and give me the answers I am seeking. I want to know or I will drop the both of you right here, right now and go on my way to Ocean City like I was going to do in the first place. I have had it!” Marissa took several deep breaths trying to calm herself. She couldn’t remember being this angry in a long time but this constant problem of everyone avoiding her questions was going to stop. NOW.

  “Pull the car over Yoska.” Madame Bouvier said, disappointment evident in her voice. “She is right. She must know the story before she can know the answers. Find a hotel and we will stop for the night. We can’t afford the loss of time but if we don’t take care of this now, it will only fester and get worse. There!” she pointed “On the sign, it says accommodations next exit. Turn there and we will take care of this at last.”

  Yoska nodded the same as he always did, and eased the Jeep over into the exit lane preparing to get off. All three of them seen the blur as it whipped in front of the Jeep and felt the rocking of the vehicle as if a huge blast of wind had sprung up out of nowhere.

  “He’s found us!” Madame Bouvier cried. “Quickly! Grab the ring with one hand and join hands with us.”

  Too late Marissa did as she was told, clutching the ring with one hand and then rapidly reaching out with her other and forming a trinity of clasped hands. As she did so, the Jeep disappeared and so did the Gypsy and her brother, Raaida’s voice calling out to her and echoing in her ears. Suddenly she was alone in a fog so thick she couldn’t see the end of the nose on her face.

  “Raaida!” she called. “Yoska! Where are you?” she yelled frantically. She could hear nothing.

  “Raaida! Where are you!?” Nothing but the deepest silence greeted her as she slowly made her way along the uneven terrain.

  “Yoska! Help me! I can’t see anything!”

  “Yoska! Help me! I can’t see anything!” A nearby voice mocked her.

  Marissa whipped around trying to see who had spoken but there was nothing to see through the thick fog.

  “Who’s there?” she called out.r />
  “Who’s there?” the mocking voice replied, playing the repeat game like an irritating child.

  A sweat had broken out on her brow and she felt the familiar fear as she turned about trying to find the source of the voice. She noticed a small shadow, the size of a shoe lying at her feet. How could a shadow appear in a fog when there was nothing in sight to produce a shadow? She backed away, trying to escape the thing she knew had no right being there but as fast as she moved, the shadow moved with her. She watched as the thing started to throb and vibrate and grow. Not giving it the time to overtake her, she ran, blind and unknowing, She ran in the fog for what seemed like forever, her heart beating so fast she could hardly breathe, the trembling in her body refusing to stop. As she came to a halt and her body tried its best to regulate back to normal, she called out…

  “Who are you and what have you done with my friends?”

  She heard a deep growl and watched as the fog parted and the black mass from her nightmares came toward her. It slithered on its belly and used its hideous arms to gain purchase over the rough spots while the gleam of its red eyes penetrated the swirling wisps of fog that remained. Its head looked like a skeleton and the skin that covered the thing was as black as its heart. Veins throbbed and thumped along its jaw and from its lipless mouth foamed a bubbling drool as if salivating at the thought of consuming her. In all of her dreams and nightmares, nothing had prepared her for this.