Burden of the Soul

18.

The darkened sky cast silvery tones across the green field. Dave blazed over my left shoulder, or the light that indicated he was there with me in a way. Curious, I reached out with my fingertips to touch his light, letting it curl around my fingers. I couldn’t help but smile for the chance to see him so intimately, to see and touch his spirit.

A cool breeze crossed my face and directed my head to turn toward the cliff. There I spotted her, Diana, standing with her back to me looking up to the star-speckled sky. Her flowing gown of silvers and blues floated with the breeze. Her long, dark hair hung down her back with strands of silver as if highlighted with moonlight.

She turned to face me with a smile and began to move to me with one blissful step, and then another. The train of her gown seemed to slide with ease over the grass, as if floating just an inch above the ground and carried by the air.

As she approached, I could make out the deep crimson of her lips and her luminous skin. She was beautiful.

Her arms stretched out as her smile widened to greet me.

“Celestia told me to come,” I said, trying to draw out that regal, knowing self that had surfaced the last time I had crossed over. Unfortunately though, it didn’t come. I sounded unsure and uneven, a little intimidated both by her beauty and my insecurities. “She said you would show me things I needed to know if I came alone.”

She nodded once, curling her hands into her chest, splaying them over her heart. Her arms stretched out to her sides and gracefully circled up to the sky as her eyelids slowly closed. My eyes followed the direction of her arms and watched as two specs of light, two stars somewhere out in the atmosphere grew larger. They widened and became brilliant with presence as they drew closer. Hovering far above my head, they stopped and began to spin so quickly the motion became blurred and invisible to my eyes.

The light concentrated and focused in a single spot on the ground a few feet behind Diana. She lowered her arms and opened her eyes, then turned to stand at my side while Dave’s spirit lingered. One of her arms glided across my shoulders as the other streamed in an arc toward the strengthening point of focus, drawing my attention there.

The spot came to life with translucent colors and shapes being pulled into greater clarity. There were two figures, a man and a woman. I watched as the woman pleaded with the man desperately, pulling at his arms and crying. His expression was barren, void of all emotion for the woman who spread herself out in front of him.

As she begged more and more, his resolve strengthened until finally he pulled a dagger from under his jacket and drove it into her chest. Pain surged through her body in one fluid wave as her eyes widened with frozen tears yet to fall. With strength, he turned the dagger in her chest and her arms slipped to her sides and her body folded into the ground.

Her chest raised and lowered slowly with her last few breaths as a darkness spread out from the point of injury, ash consuming inch by inch until her final breath escaped her lips and the shadow stopped spreading.

The man reached down and pulled the dagger from her lifeless body without a single sign of remorse in his eyes. The light flickered and the edges of shapes and colors bled into one another as the scene playing out in front of me morphed into another.

The man was now running down crowded streets, continually looking over his shoulder with panic in his eyes. Something was chasing him. He pushed oncoming foot traffic out of his way with barreling force, becoming more and more frightened as whatever was chasing him gained. He reached out and grabbed a woman who was standing still waiting for the bus. She fought against him as he pulled her into a darkened alley. I watched as he pinned her against a brick wall and placed his hand flat against her chest, just under the throat while the other covered her mouth. Her muffled screams escaped through her eyes as she fought against him with all of her force, but it wasn’t enough.

His eyes closed and his head bowed in concentration, and the woman grew still. Her struggling was silenced and her eyes closed as she took deep breaths in and out. Then life seemed to seep out of the man’s body, each limb dropping as if a doll. His body slid to the ground and lay there in the fetal position at her feet.

She looked down at the corpse with a barren expression. She rolled her head around, adjusting her neck, and then smiled. Without a single look of remorse or fear, she walked slowly out to the sidewalk and merged with the flowing stream of bodies going here and there. Her smile deepened as two figures barreled through the crowd giving chase to something they no longer had a chance of finding.

“Body hopping,” I said, turning to look at Diana. She gave a simple nod. “Then that’s him, Rex. And that was him killing the other half of his soul.” She nodded again.

I turned back and watched as the scene changed again, the pace quickening. The images didn’t last long then, floating through as if mist on the wind. I saw people fighting and people dying. More and more darkened ash spreading over the bodies of those extinguished from existence. I saw Aunt Grace. Her face was covered in dirt and sweat and the lines of her jaw set, determined, as her arms pumped at her sides and she ran. Just a few feet behind her ran Brik with an arm extended to the small of her back, willing her to go faster, to escape something.

She reached a hand behind and took his. He pulled at her quickly and spun her up against a thick tree, pressing against her in the shadows. Their hands gripped tightly to one another and their chests froze as shadows of other figures whirled past them.

The image changed again and I saw Grace’s young face, now clean and soft. She was happy. Mom approached behind her, grinning. I watched as Mom crossed in front of Grace, picked up a small body and pulled it into view. It was a baby. It was me.

Others joined, faces I recognized. My dad. Brik. Rose. Demetrius. Then others I didn’t recognize. They gathered around me as relief and hope swelled within the room. I watched as Aunt Grace dipped her lips down to my newborn head and gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek.

A shadow seemed to darken Aunt Grace’s airy image from behind and was growing slowly. I felt Diana’s arm tighten on my shoulders and slip away as she stepped back. There was fear in her expression where a smile had been just moments ago. The shadow was growing, though it didn’t appear to be in the image itself. It looked as if a person were walking toward a movie projection from behind the screen.

I heard a clap, and then another. I strained my eyes to make sense of the figure approaching and could see two large hands being thrust together. Then a clap, and another.

“Bravo,” the figure said. His voice was deep and gritty. “What a fantastic showing.” There was a slithering quality to his pronunciation. He passed directly through the scene playing out between us, parting the mists of lights and colors with his presence. “Doesn’t that simply pull on your heart strings,” he said, just a few feet away.

My body tensed and I clenched my jaw. Dave’s light still hung next to me, but Diana continued to draw back.

“Rex,” I said simply.

“Clara, it’s so nice to finally meet you. I’ve been waiting for this for some time now.”

He began to walk again, circling me. His hands were clasped together in front of him and the ends of the long, black cloak he wore dragged behind. I stood my ground.

“Isn’t it funny the things they choose to show you and the things they choose to leave out.” He was behind me now, and I could feel his breath run cold across the back of my neck. “Why don’t I fill in some of the things they missed?”

A long, branch-like arm shot out over my shoulder toward the light as it swirled and refocused. His twisted fingers spread out like tentacles, and a new scene rose out of the mist.

Grace’s face was almost unrecognizable. The lines contorted in a violent anger, a full manifestation of the anger I witnessed in her just a few days ago. I watched as she snapped the neck of a faceless man with one harsh pull of her strong arms. She never once looked him in the eye.

Then Brik’s face mid-scream as he drove a dagger into the chest of a young woman and the ashen mark spread. Life slipped from her as the mark grew, and I watched as Brik turned, his shirt torn to strips, exposing an identical mark spreading across his own chest in unison with the dying woman.

I started shaking, unable to believe what I was seeing. I tried to turn away, but his cool, dry hands were there at the sides of my face holding it there.

“You wanted to know everything,” he said.

Then Rose. I tried to shake my head, unwilling to have my image of this loving and compassionate woman tarnished. He forced me to watch.

She was dressing herself, slipping a cream blouse over her shoulders, and then turned to a full-length mirror to do the buttons. Behind the curtains of her blouse was the ashen shadow spread out over her chest. The mark of someone who had killed the other half of their soul.

There was a scream caught somewhere in my chest, and I silently begged for Dave to appear, for anyone to appear. Rex’s hands slipped away from my face and he resumed circling me as the scenes evaporated.

“No,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Yes. There are two sides to this story, Clara. And you best know them both before you make any decisions.”

Determination solidified in my body as I made up my mind. I turned and stared him down, never once blinking.

“I’m here to stop you. And I’m going to,” I said, my voice rooted so deeply in the earth it was unshakable.

“Is that why you think you’re here?” His feet stopped as he finished a complete revolution and looked at me. “I really had given you more credit than you deserve, it seems.”

“What do you mean?”

“They told you that you came here to stop me, I assume. Do you know where you came from? Have you seen the council?”

“Yes, and I saw the empty chairs where Devin and I will sit again once we’ve killed you.”

He laughed joyously clapping, his hands together once more. “What a fantastic thought, if only it were possible. But you see, Clara. One of those chairs belongs to you and Devin. As much as you may detest the thought, the other belonged to me.”

I didn’t say anything, allowing that revelation to sink in.

“It’s true. I was one of the first who ascended, and it was everything I dreamed it would be. Heaven. Nirvana. Paradise. But even paradise has its limitations.”

He advanced toward me with a single slither. I stepped back and redirected myself as he began to come at me from the side. Dave’s spirit followed, never more than a foot away from my shoulder, unshaken and present.

“Everything was decadent and luxurious when there were only a few of us. We were rewarded for all of our struggles in life. But then others ascended, and I was being forced to share Heaven, Clara. Those coming in were overwhelmed with its luster and beauty, but I knew better. I was being forced to experience less and less as others continued to take it from me.”

He was still advancing, and with each glide of his long legs I stepped back even farther, aware I was getting closer to the cliff’s edge. A few times I tried to shift my direction, but he was there cutting me off and guiding me back to the cliff’s path.

“And then it occurred to me,” he said, catching his breath with excitement and leaning in closer for emphasis. “Why be a Master when you can be God?”

Silence amplified the intensity of his eyes digging into mine.

“You’re sick,” I said.

“Then so are you, Clara. Don’t you see? You saw what I had built for myself. You saw the potential in this physical life to be more than we ever knew. This is freedom, Clara. This is what we’ve earned. This is what you came back for.”

My shoulders tensed as I shook my head back and forth, refusing to accept what he was saying.

“I can feel your doubt even now. You don’t know why you’re here, but you will. You will soon realize you came to join me and experience the freedom I have found.”

Dave’s light began to tremble over my shoulder. Could he somehow sense my fear? I closed my eyes and willed myself to leave this place and be back in the castle with him.

But Rex continued advancing. I felt the edge of the cliff at my heels and stopped.

“And if you don’t,” he said, raising a single twisted finger to me. “Then I have no use for you.”

He jabbed at me with the finger and I jolted back to avoid it, losing my balance. Dave’s light shook uncontrollably as my feet slipped out from under me and I began to fall. Rex’s long neck leaned out over the cliff’s edge to watch as my arms and legs struggled through the air. A ground-shaking scream ripped out from inside me, and was quickly silenced by an unseen pressure on my mouth. My eyes drifted shut accepting the inevitable impact that would kill me, but heaviness rushed me on all sides and the soft glow of a starry sky darkened behind my eyelids. As quickly as I fell, there was a sensation pulling me back up. My eyes shot open as my body lunged forward with the residual force still coursing through it.

Dave was inches away from my face, holding his hand over my mouth to silence me. The room was dark. He had turned out the light.

He put a finger in front of his lips, a gesture telling me to be quiet. I could see in his eyes that he was frightened. Then I heard it, a window breaking on the floor above us. Dave pulled me up and we pressed ourselves against a wall within the shadows. Bodies were clamoring above, knocking into things with muffled grunts of pain. Then footsteps ran up the narrow staircase to the floors above.

“We have to try for it,” whispered Dave. “Come on.”

Holding my hand, he pulled me up the staircase to the main doorway as quietly as possible. We slid through undetected and went outside, our backs pressed against the exterior wall. We both stopped suddenly when we heard voices on the lookout directly above us.

“They have to be here,” an unrecognizable voice said. “This is where they cross over, I know it.”

“Keep looking,” said another, and they were both gone.

Dave pulled at my arm and we shot out from the shadows. He whipped me around the edge of Vista Rock and down the few steps that led to a dramatic drop down the rock’s edge to the marsh below. With one swing of his leg he leapt over the short wall onto a jagged landing where the rock stood natural and barren. He motioned for me to follow, but fear set in as I saw the narrow rocky shelf he expected me to jump onto.

“You’re crazy,” I said, but he refused to argue the point. He reached over and pulled at me until my body gave in and followed. He pulled me into the shadows and pressed my body against the lookout point with his own.

We listened as the voices came out of the castle and rallied just above us.

“She can’t be far,” someone said.

“The others will know we’re here by now.” At that we heard the echoes of feet pounding against the dirt floor somewhere in the distance and getting closer.

“Come on,” said one of the voices, and we heard them run off in the opposite direction.

Dave’s chest was pressed against mine, pinning me against the rock’s edge. The big heavy breaths we were each taking expanded his chest into my body and mine into his, creating the graceful sweep of a yin and yang. His head turned and I could feel the heat of his breath across my cheek. Instinctually my head turned up to him, my mouth slightly open with the panting of terror.

He pulled his hand from the wall and placed it on the side of my face.

“Are you okay?”

I couldn’t slow my breathing to answer so I settled for nodding with two quivering motions. He exhaled deeply as his forehead fell to mine, relief chasing away the adrenaline coursing through his body.

There were more voices then, scattering above us.

“Demetrius, Liv… follow that path,” said Brik. “Everyone else, search it.”

“Oh god, please be alright,” said a panicked female voice. I felt Dave’s body tighten against me at the sound.

“Mom!” He let me go and shuffled back to the point in the wall where we had jumped over.

“David?” Both of his parents called his name at the same time.

“We’re down here,” Dave said before cupping his hands to hoist me back over the wall.

The others sprinted down the Vista Rock staircase to meet us. The Shaws pulled Dave into a massive hug, relieved to have found him. Slowly I watched Brik approach me, a murderous look in his eyes. Oliver stood at the top of the stairs with his shoulders slumped, looking wounded. Guilt struck me.

“I’ll deal with you in a second,” said Brik before turning to the Shaws. “As for you, you are dismissed.”

“It wasn’t his fault,” I scrambled, coming to Dave’s defense, but Brik’s glare cut me off.

“Imagine my confusion when we got the report Fallen Souls were in the park. But then I understood it when I found out you were off roaming the park alone,” he said, just inches from my face. “Of course they were here. Cause you know what? If Devin was off roaming around at night alone, I sure as hell would be hunting him.”

His voice sent shivers down my spine as I recalled the image of him driving a dagger through the young woman’s chest.

“If you insist on doing everything your own way and putting everything we’ve worked for at risk, can you please explain to me why I still bother?”

I turned my head up to him and stared directly into his eyes.

“To justify your crimes,” I said.

His eyes widened with a new fury. “Excuse me?”

“You’ve killed people, Brik. I’ve seen it.”

“I’d like to see how you react when someone is trying to take the life of someone you love, Clara.”

My eyes scanned down to his chest directly in front of me then rolled back to address him straight on.

“How’s your chest looking these days?”

Everyone’s spines stiffened at that, including Brik’s. All eyes were on Brik with a heaviness that suggested they too knew about the mark hidden by his shirt.

“What did you see?” His words were slow and deliberate, a forced authoritative and threatening tone in his voice. I didn’t answer him. “Oliver, take Dave back to the house and don’t let him out of your sight. Albert and Rita, I’ll need you to stand guard for a cross over.”

“Brik, it’s not safe right now,” said Albert, taking a step away from his wife and Dave. “They’re still out there.”

“Clara has left us no other choice,” Brik said, glaring down on me. “You will show me what you’ve seen. Now.”