The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1)

by Gwyndolyn Russell

  "Huh? I... I died?" I coughed.

  "No, silly! You've been asleep for almost twenty hours. You went through a lot." She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I already called for Arturo. He should be here any minute now. Let me get you something to drink and eat. You must be famished!"

  "Thanks, doc."

  She smiled again and hopped out of the room.

  I was left in silence. The white noise of the machines in the bay hummed in the back of my mind. It reminded me of the dream. My eardrums thumped with my heartbeat.

  Was I always afraid of being alone? There wasn't another soul in the room. My arms itched worse now. I swear I felt those vines growing under my skin. When I looked, nothing was there, but soft pink lines from all the scratching. I stared down at my hands.

  Was that monster really me?

  A knock on the wall took my attention.

  Reaper stood in the door, a soft smile on that scruffy face of his.

  “Good morning, sunshine.” He took a seat next to me.

  “Sorry, Captain.” My head dropped.

  “Sorry for what?”

  “I fucked up on that mission.”

  “We all got out of there in one piece!” He patted my shoulder. “You did great. Like you always do.”

  I groaned and threw my head back. “Why am I in the med bay?”

  “You don’t remember? Your leg broke. Reynolds says you’ll be able to get the cast off in a couple of weeks.”

  I pulled the blanket from my legs. Sure enough, a cast on my leg. The skin black and blue.

  “I don’t remember…” A chill ran down my spine. The hair on the back of my neck and arms stood. I looked up. Reaper’s brow furrowed, a look that he knew why my skin suddenly tingled.

  Standing in the door was a mass of shadows. No. A dog. A big dog. Scarred. Red, glowing cracks for eyes. Thick, long fur. Wings? Horns? What sort of dog had those?!

  “Wait…”

  Reaper crossed his arms over his chest. “Yup.” He already answered my question before I could form the thought.

  “That’s Fenris.” He took a breath. “He’s been worried about you.”

  “What?” I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the creature. Even when I blinked, and its form shifted from that dog to a more human-like figure. The lights breathing on its armor mesmerized me. It was a trance. A spell cast on me. So familiar, yet completely unknown. Like a stranger at a bar, with a face you somehow remember in the back of your mind, though you’ve only ever seen them once in passing.

  “Hey, you alright?” Reaper squeezed my shoulder.

  I snapped to him, blinking. I must have been wide eyed, because he gave me the strangest look.

  “Sorry. Yeah.” I shook my head. “I remembered this crazy dream.”

  He wanted to hear it, so I told him about it. Every detail I could remember. The shadow figure and its lights. The roots. The itching. Told him everything. Oddly enough, it felt like I was spilling my guts to him. Telling him my deepest fears.

  By no means have I ever been religious. I’ve seen too much to believe in an ever loving god, and afterlives. Yet I was starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, there may be a hell, and I was destined for its suffering.

  “God forgives everyone who admits their sins.” Reaper assured me. “You’ve done the right thing always.”

  I sighed. I stared at Fenris from across the room. He hadn’t moved once. Not so much as a rustle of his cloak, or tail. I focused on the way his lights breathed. My own breathing synced with his. Somehow it felt right. Comforting. The coldness of the room nearly faded.

  “What is he?” I asked softly.

  Reaper shrugged. “No one knows. He doesn’t speak.”

  I squinted my eyes at the creature, then shook my head.

  “He speaks.”

  I didn’t even realize I had said the words. It didn’t sound like my voice.

  “What?”

  “I...don’t know.”

  Reynolds returned with a tray of food and a glass of water. Fenris twisted his frame to allow her through unhindered. She was full of smiles, as she usually was. A ray of sunshine. The tray was set in my lap and she went to work, checking on all the systems I was hooked up to.

  "You know, Captain," she said. "People have been coming to me about weird dreams, and spells of sickness."

  "Think there was something on that ship?"

  "Well, new species often bring new illnesses. Yet everyone I examined was perfectly fine."

  "Could it be that smoke?" Reaper gave a nod of his head towards Fenris.

  "Smoke?"

  "There was a strange gas on the ship. It could have come in with us."

  "It's possible. It could act as a hallucinogen." She set a clipboard back to the foot of the gurney. "I won't be able to tell if it is that, or not, however without a sample."

  "I ain't going to let anyone back on that ship."

  "I wouldn't either." She hummed in thought. "Perhaps if it was left on your suits I could get a sample?"

  "You're welcome to try."

  I scratched my head. I could have sworn I remembered seeing it falling down Fenris' back on the ship. Looking at him now, there was no sign of it.

  He was still staring at me.

  They allowed me to leave the medical bay with explicit instructions to take it easy over the next few weeks. What a pain. When I asked how my leg was broken, they told me Fenris stepped on it. That was why that creature was worried. He felt bad that he hurt me.

  He was on my mind like that girl I dated early into my career. Picked her up at the bar right after I graduated basic. Went on a date with her the next night and I couldn't stop thinking about her. Her cute smile, those pretty hazel eyes and the way they sparkled under the streetlights. How soft her hands were.

  Now I was stuck thinking about the look Fenris had been giving me. The way he reached out to me.

  The lights on his armor were the exact same as the ones in my dream. I swear I could hear its voice. Like a lone wolf howling on a mountainside. A siren's song luring my heart and soul closer.

  Was I the only one that felt that way? Had this strange connection with that mysterious creature?

  By the looks of it; yes.

  Fauriei dragged Fenris across the whole ship, introducing herself and him to everybody they saw. Everybody. No one was safe from them. She even reintroduced him and herself to Reaper and me. She did everything she could to sell Fenris. She must have known how uneasy he made everyone.

  No one had seen anything like him before. I'm sure he would have been treated like an ardrizi were he not so imposing for lack of a better word. He seemed to affect everyone psychologically. How could he shift between forms and yet appear as different forms to everyone? One person would see him as a humanoid figure, while someone else would see him as a wolf at the same time.

  We talked about him for a while in the barracks. Mjolnir said he looked an awful lot like an ardrizi. I even heard Irzazee say he looked like a verbenass.

  Like Reynolds reported, everyone hallucinated strange dreams, fell ill when he was around them for too long.

  Fauriei said Fenris was here to stay, and I welcomed him into the barracks to train. He saved my life after all. He saved all of us! Needless to say, no matter how much he creeped me out, confused me, or what have you, I welcomed him with open arms. At a distance.

  Little did I know how much was going to change on the ship with Fenris around. Fauriei was cheerful even when she left. She was someone we were going to miss. She lit up the entire room when she was there.

  Reaper wanted me to keep an eye on Fenris since he seemed to have taken a liking to me. For a long time I couldn't find that wolf. Checked his room multiple times. Checked the barracks. Checked the sim rooms, all twenty of them. Nowhere.

  I was thinking he wandered off the ship when we dropped Fauriei off.

  I overheard one of the kotoli engineers through the wall talking about a weird canine that slept way
too close to the nuclear core of the ship. They couldn't get it to move, or even acknowledge their existence.

  So, I headed down to the engine room. Sure enough, there was a wolf, far from any earth wolf in appearance, curled into a tight ball, a cloak like wings, lazily stretched out across its frame and the floor. The cracks for eyes had no lights, but the other lights that dotted its body breathed calmly. It was almost against the wall just below the nuclear reactor, which was caged in lead. Its warm green glow shined through little peep holes that decorated its chamber.

  It was hot down here. Only a few minutes there and I was sweating from head to toe. Usually you needed protective gear to be here. In case of a malfunction that spilled the radiation from the chamber.

  "Fenris?" I called softly.

  The wolf didn't budge.

  "Fenris." I said a bit louder.

  The cracks on his face lit up with a dim light.

  "Hey, what are you doing down here?"

  The lights shifted, growing brighter at the side of his face. He must have been looking at me.

  "You know it's not safe here long term, right? You have a room to sleep in."

  His cloak moved to cover his frame better. The lights dimmed, shifted to look away.

  "Are you... lonely?" I asked, inching a little closer. "Miss your family?"

  He snorted. Tossed his head to the side.

  I was drawn closer to it. Something inside of me understood him, though there were no words I could form about it. I knelt down next to him. Reached out to touch the back of its head where a thin, long coat of fur whipped out from between its horns. Upon touching it, I realize they weren't loose strands, but thin dreadlocks, poorly separated. Some were braided, decorated with small bones and shiny gems.

  He pulled away from me. Sat up and turned to face me. Those wings, cloak, whatever they were meant to be wrapped around his frame like a security blanket.

  “I... Sorry.” My breath caught in my throat. “Do you like it down here?”

  Of course I got no answer! I got this feeling it was speaking, but I just couldn't understand it.

  "Hey," I said. I swallowed. "You don't have to be alone anymore."

  His head cocked to one side. He looked right through me. Into my soul. I'm not sure if he found what he was looking for, or not. His cloak lowered to rest on the floor, no longer protecting itself.

  I stood slowly.

  "If you decide to join us, I'll be in the barracks." I smiled at the wolf and left.

  Back in the barracks, Ruby and Sparrow were fighting. Not for training either. They were in a full-blown yelling match. Working with your girlfriend was never a good thing. Too much time together kept them at each other's throats. I remember one day Sparrow almost smacked Ruby for chewing too loud. Maybe it was just one of those days again.

  Sparrow was yelling about how something was unfair. She shouldn't be in trouble if someone else wasn't getting in trouble.

  Ruby must have caught her in the act, whatever it was.

  When I floated into the room, they both stopped mid-sentence and looked at me.

  "Just the man I needed!" Sparrow said.

  "No. No. I'm off duty." I tried to wave her off, but she grabbed my arm.

  "I don't care! I need you to tell Reuben," she began.

  Oh, no, I thought. She said his name. This was serious.

  "That it isn't right that one person can personalize their weapon, but I can't!"

  "Everyone can personalize their weapons within the Federation's legal standards." That should have been the end of it, but she wasn't satisfied.

  When she went to speak again, I stupidly cut her off. "You all have the SOGs. You were given one in boot camp and should have kept it and studied it. There's an entire section about legal weapon modifications."

  "Yeah? Well I shouldn't be yelled at and have my weapon taken from me because I modified the rails on my weapon! Raddix completely covered his---"

  "I don't care what Raddix did." I snapped at her.

  Her lips sealed shut. Eyes wide and glistened with flecks of green and brown.

  "If someone has broken the rules of our operational standards, then you should bring it up professionally in my office, not assume it's suddenly okay and follow the herd. You're smarter than that."

  I took a breath, glanced at Ruby who was dead silent.

  "Turn your weapon into the armory to be checked out and re-modified if there is anything illegal and bring me the armorer's certificate of approval with your weapon when you're done."

  I shouldered passed her to head down to the other end of the barracks where my own puny little office was.

  I threw myself down into my chair. Pushed my feet against the underside of the desk and leaned back.

  This was miserable.

  Confined to physical down time, I couldn't train at all. I was trapped here in this room, handling stacks of paperwork about literal nonsense bureaucracy. I never wanted this position. Leading a team was one thing. I was good with doing that. Especially when our missions ended in success. This part? Filing report after report. Confirming other reports. Confirming logistics.

  This was not what I signed up for.

  Maybe it was time I left?

  I needed to decide before the alcohol took my life over. Right now it was my only entertainment. They limited television on the ship to Federation approved unless we were in range of more local signals. Anytime I flipped the damned thing on it was more political bullshit.

  Fighting the good fight! Protecting humanity one peace treaty at a time! Will there be war again?

  The worst of it was the propaganda, blatant propaganda from the Apex Corps. The Federation relied heavily on that company. It provided most, if not all, of our technology. Our weapons, ships, engines, armor, suits. They were memorialized on our ships as heavily as the Federation itself.

  They were as bad as the eldiravan. Fantastic pretenders. Actors on a galaxy wide stage playing roles of good guys and heroes when all they really do is walk all over the little guy, the very people they claim to stand for.

  I'm not sure if it was the standard bullshit that pissed me off the most, or hearing the incessant whining about the Black Wolves terrorizing the Order and Apex. Blowing up civilians like the universe was coming to an end.

  That wasn't Spectre.

  She would never do that. Unless someone else was leading them, they wouldn't resort to domestic terrorism.

  I focused on the mundane work. Better than doing nothing. I kept a glass full of whiskey. Skipped dinner.

  At some point that night, the glass disappeared. I drank straight from the bottle. I must have gotten pissed off.

  Trashed the entire office like a wild animal. Paper everywhere. Drawers thrown around. If it wasn't bolted down, it floated haplessly around the room.

  Maybe that was what the dream was about. Me falling into a pit of self-pity. Life passing me by and nothing to show for it. A soldier in a stupid war. A man with no family. Just a sewer rat from Mars trying to make something of himself. I felt stuck in place. Suffocating in my head.

  I guess I always felt this way ever since the war ended. I followed Arturo to this ship with hope I could continue having a purpose. It was alright in the beginning. Yet things dragged on. Blended into one another.

  I dreamed of being a hero. An example of what could be if you strived hard enough. If you wanted it bad enough. I took one step by enlisting. Then hit a brick wall.

  Been stuck here ever since.

  I wished we were still at war, instead of simply pretending.

  I hoped the alcohol would help me forget it, but all it did was bring everything to surface.

  Eventually, I fell asleep. Floated around the room aimlessly like everything I destroyed. Amazing how shitty life was when I couldn't join the combat.

  TWELVE

  Early one morning, Reaper went for a stroll around the ship. He enjoyed doing it. It gave him a chance to check on individuals he couldn't when everyone w
oke up. This was the quietest hour on board the Syndicate. A handful of people here and there hopping to their morning duties. He wanted to check on the night shift. Make sure they were set and had everything they needed. Sometimes he would even stop to help them out if they seemed to be overloaded, or frustrated.

  He really wanted to find Jackal, but knew he would still be asleep. He had good news for that hard working soldier. His leg healing completely could not have been timed better.

  When Reaper finished his morning routine, he got himself a second cup of coffee. Headed down to the barracks. Jackal's room was one of the first ones. He knocked on the door. Checked his watch.

  Strange. Jackal should have been up an hour ago. Everyone else was bustling around. Greeting Reaper as they flew by.

  He knocked again.

  Still no answer. The key pad was red. He wasn't the type to lock his door. One more knock.

  This time Reaper pressed his card to the keypad. It turned green. Being Captain was great. There was no such thing as locked doors on the ship!

  When he walked in, he found nothing too unusual. Clean place almost like no one lived there. A couple of glasses on the kitchen counter. One on the coffee table.

  A golden liquid was spilled, floating in an undulating blob through the room. He looked around until Jackal barged out of the bedroom, grumbling and holding his head. His hair was an absolute wreck. He was naked. Mostly. Tight shorts were the only thing he had on, and one sock rolled down halfway.

  Reaper crossed his arms over his chest, quietly sipping on his coffee. He eyed Jackal, expecting a woman to come out right behind him. Yet no one else showed up, and Jackal didn't seem to notice him floating there in the living room.

  He headed to the kitchen. Grabbed a glass from the counter to fill with water. That was when he looked up, dropped the glass so it floated away and choked back a gasp.

  "What the fuck are you doing in here?!" He exclaimed.

  "What the fuck happened to you?"

  "I've been busy."

  He peeked into the bedroom. Saw exactly what he was afraid of seeing.

  "Looks like you had a party with yourself and a bottle of jack last night." He huffed.