Deception - Episode 3 (Lost Souls)

by Laurel O'Donnell

  “She needs closure. Do you think that would put her mother at ease?”

  “Maybe.” Sam frowned and clenched her jaw. She wanted to find out who had killed Rose and punish them for the torment they were putting the young woman and her mother through.

  “So we need to find out where her body is and lead the police there?” Christian wondered.

  Ben stopped pacing and looked at him. “Rose is the only one who knows that. Maybe that’s how we can help her.” Ben glanced at the digital clock on the counter in the kitchen. Twelve thirty. “I’m going to talk to Eugene. Maybe he can dig up something about Rose.” Ben disappeared.

  Sam blinked. That was quick. Ben never did that. He always hung around to make sure they all had assignments to further their case. She shrugged. Maybe he didn’t want to see another Soul change. That would be his style. He always fought hard to save a Soul, especially the more troubled ones.

  ~ ~ ~

  Ben walked through the gardens of the Metropark. The sun high overhead had finally broken through the dark clouds. He sat on the bench where he had spoken to Cora earlier. He was only a half hour late, but he knew Cora wouldn’t like it. She had always been punctual.

  “There’s another Changed in town. Watch yourself.”

  Ben looked over his shoulder to see Cora leaning against a tree with her arms crossed.

  “And you’re late,” she added.

  Ben nodded. “We’re working on a case. Another Soul.” Her words penetrated his thoughts. “Wait, did you just say there is another Changed in town?”

  “Yeah. Definitely. I’ve seen him lurking around. Just be careful.” She straightened away from the tree, her arms dropping to her sides. “Did you tell Sam about me?”

  “No.”

  She sat on the bench beside him. “Did she ask about me?”

  “Of course. She loved you. She still does.”

  They were silent for a long moment.

  Ben looked down at his feet. He didn’t know what to say to Cora. There was no easy solution to her situation, but every moment he was away from her, he thought she might be trying to get more power. He felt obligated to stay with her, to help her resist.

  “You know, I was thinking. About that angel. About how to go with her.”

  Ben shook his head. “We’ve gone over this, Cora. There’s only one way you can go with her. And making the Jump is out of the question.”

  “If I absorb enough power–” Ben continued to shake his head with even more conviction and Cora hurried to continue. “Then she would come for me.” She grabbed his arm. “Listen to me. All I have to do is absorb some power from the Souls, not all of it.”

  “No! That’s not going to happen.”

  “There’s no other way. You know it. I want it to be over. I want to be done with this unending life. I think that I’ve earned it. Six hundred years!”

  “Draining Souls is not an option.”

  “I won’t hurt them! They can recharge. I won’t kill them. I just need energy. Just to make the Jump.”

  “Into some poor human?”

  “No. I’ve really thought about this. It should be into a human who is dying.”

  Ben’s gaze swept her face. No Changed wants to Jump into a dying human. What would be the point of that? How could they hurt humans that way?

  “Maybe someone in a hospital. Someone sick. I just want the angel to come for me. I want her to…take me.”

  Ben sighed. There was no other way for Cora. As a Changed, there was only one way to die. “It would take centuries to build up that kind of energy. The kind of energy you need to make the Jump.”

  “I need Souls, Ben. Please, don’t think bad of me. But I need their energy and I need it soon.”

  “No. I won’t do that. I won’t help you with that.”

  “It’s the only way. I need the energy to make the Jump, otherwise, I’m stuck here.”

  Ben shook his head. He wasn’t going to offer up his friends. He didn’t want her draining them. “Don’t ask that of me, Cora.”

  “Maybe some of them will help us. Maybe some –”

  “You know they would never do that. Not with you…like you are now.”

  Cora flinched and then nodded.

  Ben saw the glimmer of hurt in her black eyes before she turned away.

  “There has to be a way. I mean, we have the regen chambers. Eugene has a regen bed. It’s not like I’ll drain them completely. I’d never do that.”

  “They won’t do it. You know that.” Ben couldn’t even tell any of them he had found Cora. The others would come after her. “And I’m not going to ask them to.”

  Cora’s brows came together. “If you’re not even willing to consider that option, then you think of something!” She crossed her arms.

  Ben opened his mouth to argue with her, but then snapped it shut. It was no use. “I’ll think of something else.”

  “There is nothing else!” Cora shouted. She sat back. “I’m stuck here.”

  “You’re not alone. I’m here. I’ll help you.”

  “You couldn’t help me before. You couldn’t stop me from Changing.”

  Ben winced at the truth in her words. “Cora –”

  She fazed away from him to the tree. “Stay away from me before I drain you.” And then she vanished.

  ~ ~ ~

  Ben found Sam at the theater office, searching through paperwork. She sat in a chair, mumbling to herself. Ben grinned. “Sam?”

  Sam glanced over her shoulder. “Please tell me Eugene had information about Rose!”

  “Rose?”

  Sam closed her eyes and tilted her head back in a silent groan. “Are you with me today, Ben? You do remember Rose? You were supposed to talk to Eugene.”

  “Oh.” Ben shook his head. “I’ve been looking for Cora.”

  Sam slowly slid the drawer to the filing cabinet closed. “Look I know you’re worried about her, but there is a Soul we can save right here, right now.”

  Ben nodded. “I know. I know.”

  “I can’t find anything about Rose. It’s like she just vanished. Let’s talk about this outside the theater. I know Rose is going to pop in here any minute and tell us to get out.”

  Ben nodded and fazed. Sam materialized just outside the theater at almost the same time.

  “How’d you find me, anyway?” Sam asked.

  “Lucas told me.”

  “Esme is searching on the computer, but doesn’t hold out much hope. In 1987, files were saved on paper.”

  Ben looked away to a man on the corner dressed in jeans and a shirt, holding a sign that read ‘Will work for food.’ Cora would have given him some food. She would have taken some from a restaurant and left it with him.

  “She doesn’t think anything about Rose would be stored on the Internet. Or at least any way she could access it. Christian agrees.”

  He wished there was something he could do to help Cora. She was always so generous. But there was no way he was going to risk the energy of his friends.

  “And then I went to dance naked in the cemetery under a full moon.”

  “Yeah,” Ben murmured, feeling Sam’s gaze on him.

  Sam scowled at Ben. “Are you okay? Did you hear a word I just said?”

  Ben shook his head. “I’m just worried about Cora.”

  Sam’s gaze swept Ben. “We’ll find her,” she said sincerely.

  People passed them on the street. Some were in business suits, some in jeans holding cameras, some with backpacks. He shook his head with a sigh and glanced down. The pavement beneath his boots was drying from the morning rain. “Do you miss her, Sam?”

  “Cora? Of course. What kind of question is that?”

  “I know. I’m sorry.” He lifted his gaze to hers. “What would you do if you found her?”

  Sam looked out across the street in contemplation. “Part of me hopes that I never find her.”

  “What if she needs help? She’s all alone out there.”

&nbs
p; Sam looked at Ben. “She’s not one of us anymore. She’s just like Damien. You saw what he did to that human. We could have saved that human. But he killed him.” Sam shook her head. “The Changed are evil. We can’t forget that.”

  Ben would never see Cora that way. “Would you fight her?”

  Concern etched a line in Sam’s brow. “Why are you asking me this?”

  “Maybe because you didn’t fight Damien. So, I’m wondering what you would do with Cora.”

  “She’s family, Ben. I miss her. I really do. Remember the way her nose would crinkle when she saw a rabbit? Remember the way she would always beat you at cards by cheating? And you never told her you knew.”

  Ben smiled, but his grin was filled with heaviness. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  Sam was silent in thought. He watched a gamut of emotions play across her features. Resolve set her chin. Sadness melted her resolve and her shoulders sagged. “I would try to save her.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know. But I’d come up with a way. Just like we came up with a way to save the humans. If we could do that, then we should be able to find a way to save Cora.”

  What if she didn’t want to be saved? Ben almost asked, but then kept his lips firmly closed.

  “Look, Ben. I know you miss her. I know. But my biggest concern is she’s going to hurt someone. Another Soul, maybe. Like Lucas. A human. I can’t let that happen. We can’t let that happen. It’s better we find her before another Soul does. I’m heading back to see if Esme found anything.” She turned away.

  “You would save her?”

  Sam paused and looked back at him. “I would do anything I could to save her.”

  Ben nodded.

  “Please go talk to Eugene. Maybe he has something on Rose that we can’t find.”

  Ben nodded absently, not really hearing her again. He looked out over the city. He knew what he had to do. “I’m going to look for Cora. I’ll be back before dark.”

  “Ben,” Sam called, but Ben fazed.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Cora!” Ben hollered, walking through the gardens of the MetroPark. Tall trees stretched over his head, reaching toward the afternoon sun. A breeze moved through them, rustling the leaves, but the wind never touched him.

  Ben wouldn’t blame Cora if she left, thinking her own brother would not help her. “Cora!” If she were not here, he’d find her again. He vowed he wouldn’t let her go through this alone. He could help her.

  He sat on the bench they had talked on earlier. It was a mistake to leave her feeling so alone. So abandoned.

  “You came back.”

  Ben whirled to see Cora standing behind him.

  He stood quickly. “I won’t leave you, Cora. I want to help.”

  Her eyes opened wide in surprise. “You’re going to bring the Souls to me?”

  “No. I won’t do that. But I’ve thought of something else.” He would do anything for Cora. Anything. She was family. She was his little sister. He had always meant to take care of her. To look out for her. And now was no different. “There is a way…”

  Chapter Three

  Ben fazed into the four iron walls before Eugene’s lab. He stumbled forward and put his forehead against the wall. A red laser moved across his eye and the door slid open. It was an identity detection device that their brilliant friend Eugene had created to detect a Changed trying to breach his stronghold.

  Eugene stood in the doorway holding an iron pole in his hands. Even with his stocky build, Eugene did not present an imposing figure. His t-shirt proclaimed ‘Lord of the Rings.’ His short brown hair looked unkempt and wild, an exact opposite to what Eugene was. “Ben!” He put the pole on a table and grabbed Ben’s arm. “What happened?”

  “Changed,” Ben gasped. He was so weak he could barely keep his feet beneath him.

  Eugene helped him to a side door. It slid open as they approached and Eugene held Ben’s arm, guiding him to a metal table. This was the regeneration table that helped a Soul recover its lost energy.

  Ben lunged forward, catching the edge before he fell. He boosted himself up with Eugene’s help. Ben sighed and lay back on the table. He passed out before Eugene could ask any questions.

  ~ ~ ~

  Christian stood near the computer chair watching Lucas follow his human around the apartment like a dog. Lucas was smitten. And it was sadly comical that he couldn’t touch her or kiss her, or rather he wouldn’t for fear of spooking her.

  Sam clicked her cell phone closed. The phone was another one of Eugene’s brilliant inventions. He found energy waves in their ethereal world that allowed them to transmit speech over great distances and he built devices allowing them to utilize these waves. He crafted them to look like cell phones, which made their purpose easy to understand and made the devices easy to use. “Ben’s taking too long. I’ve got someone else working on this. Todd said he’d look into it for me. I’m going to pop over to his place in a couple hours.”

  “I was thinking that I’ll talk to Rose a little.”

  “What?”

  Christian held up his hands. “It’s better than sitting around here watching Lucas trot after his human like a lap dog.”

  “You’d better be careful he doesn’t hear you.”

  Christian leaned forward, gazing down the hallway where Lucas had just disappeared. “He knows that by staying with her he’s putting himself at risk, right?”

  “What is it with you?” Sam demanded. “Yes. He knows.”

  “I mean, the Changed know he is here.”

  “Maybe. Some do, probably. But Lucas won’t leave her. Besides, he’s been around for a while. He can take care of himself.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “What I’m sure about is that it’s not your business and you’re putting too much thought into it.”

  “You should be, too. Isn’t this what we do? Prevent the Changed from getting energy? I mean he could at least take his human and go live in some iron walled home like Eugene.”

  “A cage?” Lucas asked returning from down the hallway.

  “No. A home. That way, you would be protected from the Changed.”

  “I don’t need protecting. Besides…” He glanced back down the hallway. “I would never do that to Esme. She is a human and needs to live a human life.”

  Christian looked at Sam. “Sam, tell him.”

  Sam held up her hands. “Don’t drag me into this. It’s Lucas’s choice. Not mine.”

  Lucas nodded. “Back off Christian. Nothing’s changing. This is right for Esme.”

  “But what about you? You’re the one in danger from the Changed. And when they drain you, they’ll make the Jump into her.”

  “That’s not going to happen.” Lucas’s voice was tight.

  Esme walked down the hall. She walked straight to the machine on the desk and placed her hand over it. “Lucas?”

  Lucas put his hand over hers. “I’m here.”

  “I’ve got a list of the cast and technical support from the 1987 play.”

  Esme rifled through some papers on the desk before grabbing one. She placed it on the desk. “Here.”

  Lucas stared at another piece of paper on the desk that had fallen out from the stack of papers she had looked through. It was a ticket to Romeo and Juliet. “Where did you get that?”

  Esme gaped. She picked up the ticket, holding it to her chest almost protectively. “Cathy gave it to me. It’s free and I haven’t been out in a while. She invited me.”

  Lucas dropped his chin to his chest.

  “She’s my friend, Lucas. Please. Please don’t say I can’t go.”

  “I would never tell you that.”

  Esme’s smile glowed. “Thank you! Thank you.” She kept the ticket with her as she returned to her bedroom, her red hair bouncing.

  Lucas stood with his hand on the machine for a long moment.

  Sam looked at Christian and shook her head in a mute plea for silence.

  Lucas
removed his hand from the machine. “Yes,” he whispered. “I’m going with her.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Ben materialized in the garden. Cora waited anxiously, pacing by the bench and tree they always met at. Her eyes lit up when she saw him and she stepped forward in anticipation.

  Maybe too much anticipation, Ben thought.

  “I’ve found a woman,” she told him. “She’s very sick. They give her maybe a day, maybe two. It’s perfect Ben!”

  Guilt overwhelmed Ben. He had thought her anticipation was greed for his energy. “You really want to do this?”

  She nodded. “Yes! But there’s not a lot of time.”

  Ben sat on the bench. “Alright, Cora. But you can’t take as much this time. It’s wearing me out. I barely had enough strength to get to the regen facilities.”

  “Eugene will help you.”

  “I can’t go to Eugene anymore. I don’t want him to become suspicious. I told him I was drained fighting a Changed. He might try to contact Sam.”

  Cora sighed softly. “Isn’t there any other way to do this?”

  “When I was at Eugene’s I thought of something else. You should come with me to one of them.”

  Cora balked, her mouth dropping, her eyes opening wide. “At a headquarters with the other Souls?”

  “No. Even I can’t go there. Sam and I have pissed Daniel off. The Souls working for Daniel are looking for us. We have to steer clear of him until he calms down.”

  “Oh. You mean one of the loner facilities.”

  Ben nodded. Their former leader Daniel had set up regen facilities all across the country in case of emergencies, in case a Lost Soul was attacked and drained by a Changed and needed an immediate infusion of energy. “Eugene has a map of all their locations. We should use on of those. That way, I don’t have to get off the table. It will go much quicker.”

  “Great idea!”

  “I memorized a couple of places and went to check a few of them out. It looked like no one had used one of them in a very long time.” He placed his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll faze you there.”