My Soul to Keep

CHAPTER 29



Police filled the house in a matter of moments. They took up their positions and pointed guns at everything but us. One of them went upstairs and yelled, “Clear!”

I spun around in circles and watched them pull back one by one.

“Huh, must have been a false alarm. Weird. The neighbors said a war was going on. Let’s go see what they have to say,” one of the officers said to another.

Clarisse had her eyes closed in concentration.

Ah. These are not the droids you’re looking for. That explains it.

We watched the police in silence as they left and lightly closed the door behind them. I let out the breath I didn’t realize I'd been holding. “Whew.”

Darius started standing. Clarisse rushed to help him. “You going to be okay?”

“I’ll live,” he said back to her.

“Um, guys? I’d really like to check on my family, but I don’t know what to do with this.” I pointed to the squirming soul in my hands.

Brett was yelling at me, but I couldn’t hear his words. His spectral fists beat furiously at my hand, but it felt like feathers. I put my middle finger against my thumb and plinked him in the nose. I expected it to go through his face, but it didn’t. He grabbed his nose.

“Can I keep it as a pet?”

“No, brother Reaper. Let it go. His soul knows its place and will join the others in our realm.”

I let it go and sure enough it turned into a ball of spectral light and sped off through the ceiling and up into the night sky. I shoulda stuffed it in a jar.

I ran to where Caelyn was lying on the floor. She didn’t look so good. She was very pale and still had a bloody hole in her neck.

“Caelyn,” I said and shook her gently. She didn’t respond. “Clarisse, could you get her to the hospital? She lost a lot of blood. I’m going to check on my parents.”

She nodded and picked my sister up gently. She banished her wings before walking though the front door. I peeked out around her and saw her pink bug in the driveway as the police cruisers started pulling away from the curb. Good. Let’s see what else I have to deal with.

I changed back to my human-seeming self and ran upstairs to find Mom and Dad asleep in their bed. I checked for wounds but didn’t see anything. Brett must have done something to them though. I shook Dad over and over until his eyes opened.

“What, Connor?”

“Are you two, okay?”

“Yeah. We’re fine! Go back to bed.”

“Okay, pop. G’night,” I said and kissed him on the forehead. I’d tell him about Caelyn in the morning. As I passed my room, my phone started ringing. Great. What now?

I opened my door and ran to the phone. “Hello?”

“Conrad?”

“Mr. James?”

“Yes, it’s me. Jessica asked me to call you. We’re at the hospital.” His voice cracked. “I think you should come down here…It doesn’t…it doesn’t look good. I think it’s time.”

I didn’t say anything. I dropped the phone and ran. I ran downstairs, I ran past Darius, and I ran out the front door. I probably would have run all the way to the hospital if I hadn’t remembered I could fly. I took off and flew straight to Jessie.

I landed some ways away and turned human. I ran straight up to the emergency room doors and almost crashed into a man in a wheelchair trying to get out.

“Sorry,” I mumbled and moved around him. The waiting room was full of people, including Clarisse. She stood as soon as she saw me. “They took her inside. I think they’re giving her a transfusion. I told her she cut her neck on some barbed wire.”

“Thank you, Clarisse. I’m here for Jessie.”

“Oh. Is she…okay?”

“Not according to her father. I need to get inside.”

“Okay. I’ll be here. Waiting.”

I nodded and otherwise ignored her. I saw a door leading into the interior of the emergency room and headed for it. A rather unpleasant, large, elderly woman sat at the desk next to it.

“You can’t go in there, young man,” she said without looking up.

“Please, my girlfriend is in there.”

“Immediate family only.”

“My sister is in there, too.”

That caused her to look up from her rather archaic looking computer. “What’s her name?”

“Caelyn Sullivan.”

She punched in a few keys. “They have her in ICU. You’re not allowed in there right now. Are your parents coming?”

“Um, I don’t think they know yet. Please, I have to see them…her.”

“Young man, if you don’t take a seat I can promise you one thing–

Enough. “Let me in,” I said.

“Go right ahead, young man. Your sister is all the way at the end of the hall in room 113. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“Thank you,” I said and opened the door. Rows of little rooms with curtains half closed offered a little bit of privacy for the sick and injured people waiting to see the doctors, but not much. I glanced in each one as I passed. I didn’t see my sister or Jess in any of them.

“Who are you looking for?” I looked up at a nurse behind a large desk in the center of the enormous ER. “Jessica James,” I said.

Her face darkened in sadness. “She’s in room 112 in ICU. Follow me. I’ll take you to her.”

“Thank you,”

She took me back to the rear exit of the ER and into another corridor. Larger rooms with doors lined either side. She took me to the one with a plaque that read 112.

Mr. James sat in a rather uncomfortable looking chair next to a curtained off bed. I could see feet under the blanket, but that was it. He nodded at the nurse and she left me standing there in the doorway.

I swallowed and walked in. The closer I got to the curtain, the more of Jessie I could see. I peeked around the corner and prayed she would be awake.

My heart sank. She was almost the same color as Brett after I had ripped his soul from his body. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks. My heart started beating again slowly. I inched my way closer to the bed and with each inch, my despair grew. My mouth opened and a low moan escaped.

“No, no, no…” It was the only word I was capable of saying.

“I’m sorry, Connor,” Mr. James said and put his face in his hands.

“What happened?”

“She was fine when we got home. I sent her to bed. A few minutes later she called me upstairs. She said she didn’t feel good. When I went to put my hand on her head, she collapsed.”

“Why?”

“The doctors have no idea. They said all of her major organs are shutting down one by one. She’s breathing on her own, but they have a respirator ready in case her lungs fail, too. They said the only thing strong is her heart.”

As soon as he said it, the monitor attached to Jessie started blaring. Mr. James closed his eyes. I sank to the floor.

A team of nurses and doctors scrambled into the room wheeling carts of medical equipment.

“Code blue, ICU. Code blue, ICU,” rang out over the speakers in the hall.

Mr. James and I were pushed out into the hallway by angry looking nurses. They left the door open, but completely blocked our view of Jess with the curtain hanging from the ceiling. The hot tears burning their way down my face flowed faster.

“There’s nothing we can do?”

“Nothing I haven’t already tried. There’s nothing left to do. How could I have been so selfish? I utterly loved her mother. She wanted a child. I knew what would happen, and I did it anyway. This is all my fault…”

“Don’t. You have a wonderful daughter, Mr. James. We both know this isn’t the end. You’ll see her again.”

“I know. But it won’t be the same. She’ll either be as we are now, or a perfect soul. Have you ever seen a soul, Connor? They’re not the same. They’re…they’re…they care almost nothing for what they were. When the body dies, part of them dies, too. It’s just not the same. I just hope she’s strong enough to become one of the Chosen. At least then she’ll have a chance. Either way, I’ve lost my little girl.”

I put my hand on his arm, at a loss as to what else to say.

The blaring machines in the room silenced. Mr. James and I stood in the hallway and waited. Medical technicians started wheeling equipment out of the room. With each passing person I cried a little harder. The nurses came next shaking their heads. Finally the doctor on duty came out and ushered us farther down the hallway. Mr. James was having trouble standing upright.

“Is she?” I looked up at Jess’ father and my heart went out to him. I had no desire to live whatsoever. I could only imagine the pain he felt.

“I don’t know how to say this…”

Mr. James collapsed in the middle of the hospital hallway floor. “No…”

“No!” I looked at the doctor. “Oh, my God, I am so sorry. You misunderstood me. She’s fine!”

“Huh?” I did a double take.

“What?” Mr. James leaned up and grabbed the doctor’s lab coat.

“I didn’t know how to say that apparently she’ll be fine! She stopped breathing and her body sort of… rebooted itself?”

“What are you trying to say, doctor?” Mr. James stared at him. The doctor’s face went blank.

I guess he wants the truth without the emotion.

“The girl started breathing again on her own. Her EEG returned to normal. All of the other monitors showed all of her organ functions returning to normal. Throughout everything her heart never wavered once. It actually started pumping stronger as everything else started shutting down. It’s what kept her alive the whole time.”

For the first time since the park, I smiled. “Can we see her?”

The doctor turned and looked at me. He shook his head to clear it. “Um, yes. She’s wide awake.

Her father and I ran into the room. Jessie smiled at the sound of our footfalls. She turned and opened her eyes and looked at us. “Hi, Dad. Hi, Connor.”

I smiled and crossed the rest of the room. Her eyes followed my every move. I paused when as realized it. “You can–"

She smiled. It was the most beautiful smile I'd ever seen.

“See you? Yup. Damn you’re cute.”

I must have fainted a little. The floor was cold. I felt it through the tattered remains of my shirt. Cold linoleum sucks. I looked over at the bed at Jessie who was leaning over the side and laughing.

Her dad took the opportunity of my sudden incapacitation to run to the bed and scoop his daughter in his arms. “Oh, Jessica. I love you, baby girl.”

“I love you, too, Daddy. But you’re crushing me.”

“I don’t care. Don’t ever scare your father like that again."

She giggled. “I won’t. Daddy. I can see!”

“I know. I heard. How?”

“The doctor said my body healed itself. They said they have never seen anything like it.”

“He said your heart kept you alive through everything. They said it refused to quit.”

Jessie pulled back from her dad. I stood and she gave me a funny look and started laughing.

“What?” I couldn’t believe she was laughing.

“You saved me!”

“Ha ha, Jess. How did I save you?”

“Don’t you remember, silly? We traded. It was your heart that kept me alive.”