Reclaiming Souls (4 page)

“I’m so sorry. That was out of line,” I whispered. I jolted to stand and run away, but he grabbed my hand and held it to him.

“No, it wasn’t.”

My body felt a jolt like lightening fly through my body. My head felt like it was going to explode. I reached up and squeezed the sides as the pressure mounted inside it. I wanted to scream but bit my lips in pain and agony as I fell to the ground on my knees.

“Dev, what’s wrong!?” He was at my side in an instant.

The pain stopped and I stared off as a vision crossed my mind; a memory from my past. I was in a chair, tied down, screaming as a man scraped a knife across my breasts. The vision ended and I flung back against a chair, grasping my chest.

“Dev!?” Kale grabbed my shoulders and shook me.

I started crying again...what the hell was that all about? “I think I need to go.”

“No, please, you can’t go,” his voice was high pitched and panicky.

“I think...I s-saw what happened to me before I died,” I swallowed the lump that was in my throat but it came right back up.

“Oh God, Devalynn. What happened?”

I shook my head, “I’d rather not say. Look, I need some space. I need to figure out what the hell is going on. I’ll be back in a little bit.” I ran past him and bolted out of the front door. I looked up for the portal and it opened, taking me with it and back to the In-Between that become my new home.

“Devalynn!? What is going on?” Kellin came up and wrapped his arms around me when I fell to my knees on the ground. I tried to cry. I wanted nothing more than to cry but the tears wouldn’t come out.

“Oh, Kellin. I don’t know what to do.  I don’t know what I’ve done.” I hung my head down and rested it on his shoulder.

“It can’t be that bad.”

“It is. I didn’t reclaim him. I didn’t bring him back with me. I saw what happened around the time of my death. I got some of my memories back and holy shit, it was horrible. I was tortured.”

“Damn it. This is why I prayed you would never get your memories back,” he sighed.

“What do you mean?” There was a silence. “Did you know? All this time, did you know what happened to me?” I asked him, my anger boiling as I raised my voice and pushed him away.

His face drained of color. “Dev, we all know what happened to you. We all saw it. The Creator, the Soul Collectors...everyone,” he whispered.

“So what happened!? How did I die?” I yelled at him.

He shook his head, “None of us are allowed to talk about it or tell you. You’d have to find out for yourself and the only way that’s going to happen is for you to get all your memories back; piece by piece. I told you over the next few months this would happen. Tomorrow you might not even remember you saw it.”

“I’m going back down there. I need to talk to Kale.” I stood to my feet in one swift motion and ran through the portal, landing in front of Kales’ house.

The door swung open. He rushed out to me, wrapping me in his arms. “Kale, we need to talk,” I cried into his shoulder.

“Let’s go inside.” I nodded my head. He held the door open and let me go first.

“What’s going on? You just left so quickly.”

“I think I need to see that picture now,” I whispered.

Sitting next to me, he pulled it out of his wallet again and slipped it in my hands. I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths, and when I looked down and opened them, I was staring back at myself. Kale and I were sitting on the ledge of a mountain. I was wrapped in his arms with mine outstretched to take the picture. We were both smiling as our lips were touching the others. A single tear fell and slipped down my cheek.

“I guess I do know you. I just can’t remember you.” I ran my fingers across the picture. “Do you know how I died?”

“No. No one does. It was your birthday night. You had stayed late at work. I called to check on you and the last thing you told me was ‘I’ll see you soon.’” He got quiet for a minute. “You never showed up. I went out looking for you. We found your car. It was wrecked and the tires had been completely destroyed. Probably ran over something. I searched the woods. There was a cabin and when I knocked a man opened the door, said he hadn’t seen you or even heard the car accident. A search party went out. We never found you. That’s how I died. I was in a boat getting ready to go down and look in the waters for you when the accident happened and I ended up, well, up there.” He had tears streaming down his face.

I was sitting in silence, absorbing all the information. Something didn’t sound right. How was I in a car accident? I was tortured. “Where is that cabin?”

“What do you mean? It was somewhere deep in the woods; took me about an hour to come across it.”

“I think...I know, this is going to sound crazy, but I think I was murdered.”

“By who? That guy? He’s just some old crazy man who lives by himself.”

“What I saw, was someone cutting me. I was screaming a blood curling scream.” That’s when it happened again. The throbbing in my head, the feeling like my head was about to burst, came back.

I squeezed the sides of my head again and fell back on the couch; my eyes were shut so tight it hurt. The memory came. I was being tethered to a weight, still alive, and pushed overboard a boat. I struggled for air; struggled to relieve the burning pressure in my lungs as they fought for air. Then I stopped fighting. I stopped moving. I stopped breathing. I had just remembered my death. My body was still down there somewhere but there was nothing that could be done to find it.

“Dev, I think you need to relax and take a breather. Come on, let’s go sit out back for a little bit.”

“I need to go to that cabin. I think it was him. I think he killed me.”

“What are you going to do? He can’t see you, remember?”

“No, but he can see you.”

He shook his head, “I think you’ve lost your mind. I’m not going out there to bother that man again.”

“Are you serious right now!? You won’t even investigate it!?” I threw my hands up over my head. “This is ridiculous!”

“No, what’s ridiculous is you trying to get me to go out there! He was already looked at and nothing came out of it!”

“I thought you cared about what happened? If you searched for me, why won’t you do this for me and go check him out just one more time?”

“I just can’t, Dev. You’re going to drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out, and truthfully, I don’t want to really know if that is him not because I couldn’t live with it. I would have talked with your killer and could have possibly saved you if it were him. I would kill him. Right there. I wouldn’t hesitate to commit homicide.”

“What if he’s done it to other people? What if I wasn’t the first!?” I waited for an answer but none followed. “Well, I think I’m going to go away for the day. I have other souls on backup I have to get reclaimed.” I stood and walked out, slamming the door behind me. I pulled the list out of my back pocket and studied the next name:

Pamela Winston. Age at second chance: 21. Crime: child abuse; Quebec.

I looked up, the portal open and sucked me in, dropping me down in Quebec. There was snow everywhere and it was falling in heavy sheets out of the sky. I walked around the city for a while. I heard her irregular heartbeat and took my time to get to her.

Why wouldn’t Kale help me? Why did he insist on not going to that cabin? Maybe he was right. Maybe I just needed to forget the whole thing and move on. I sighed deep and hard; wrapped my arms around my neck and rubbed the soreness.

I entered a graveyard and walked casually through the resting places for the people, being careful not to step on top of one of them. Her heartbeat became louder as I got closer to her. What on earth was she doing in a place like that? I thought to myself. The closer I got, I could make out faint sobbing. I rounded a tree and saw her lying on the ground with a hand over the freshly disturbed dirt.

“Pamela,” I called out to her.

“I know who you are. Just get it over with. I’m so ashamed of myself,” she began to sob harder.

“You’re not going to fight me?” I asked, slightly confused.

“Why would I? I did a horrible thing. I knew you’d be sent after me but I wanted to see my husband’s grave first. I needed to talk to him and ask his forgiveness.” She finally stopped crying long enough to form a coherent sentence.

“I’m already a day late bringing you back. I’m afraid time is up.” I knelt down next to her slender body.

“Okay,” she responded, “I’m ready.” She closed her eyes. The tears slipped down her face and landed on the grass below her.

I slipped my hand through her chest and grabbed onto her heart, her eyes never opened as I took her soul and stuffed it in the tiny necklace. Well that had to have been the easiest one I did. Next on the list was Brandon, 32, domestic assault, San Diego.

The portal opened as I looked up and took me to San Diego. I was really starting to dislike my job as I took the soul from each person.

“Oh shit. I’m not going back,” he saw me land next to his car. His wife was in the car, curled up against the frame as she cried and hid her face in shame from what he did to her.

“Time’s up, and I’m more than happy to take you back,” I lunged at him but he move to the side then took off running down the street.

“You can’t make me go back to that place!” he yelled as he rounded a corner and jumped through bushes and trees to try and lose me.

I rolled my eyes, “See, that’s where you’re wrong. I can make you and who do you think you are, exactly? You knew the conditions before coming back down here!” I hollered at him from behind. Every time I tried to grab him, he would duck out of my grasp. “Damn it. You’re making this so much harder than it has to be!” He ran into some trees and took off through the brush. I followed him. A little clumsy at first, then with complete focus, I made it my mission to let out some of the built up anger and go after him as fast as I could. Just when I was about to lunge and take him down, a brilliant light shone in front of me and when I blinked then opened my eyes, I was back up at the In-Between. The Creator was sitting at a great table eating a magnificent feast.

“Sir, is something wrong?” I bowed my head and placed a closed fist over my chest.

“Devalynn, you know why you are here, don’t you?” his voice boomed out.

“Unfortunately, yes,” I whispered.

“You have to reclaim him. He’s not yours anymore. He’s still living and you are not.”

“Yes, sir, but-“

“There is no but! You know the rules! You know what happens when you disobey. If you are unwilling to reclaim him, you can take his place and another Collector will go get him; one who has no emotional attachments to him. Do I make myself clear, Devalynn?” He stilled his fork and looked at me.

I looked down at the grown, “Yes, sir,” I squeaked out.

“I want you to stay up here the rest of the day. Callisa has taken the rest of your reclamations today. You need to get your head on right.”

“Sir, may I ask a question?”

“Yes,” he spoke; his voice calmed down and he wasn’t yelling at me.

“Are we allowed to make requests?”

“What kind of requests?” He cocked an eyebrow up.

“I want my memories erased. I don’t want to remember anything from before I came here. Please, I beg you,” I pleaded my case to him.

He sat back and rested his arms on the table. “That’s a pretty big request and can’t be undone once it’s been sealed.”

“I understand.”

“You will forget your family, your friends, your loved ones, and-“

“Kale,” I cut him off and looked him in the eyes; hurt written across my face with furrowed eyebrows, a severe frown, and a twitch in my right eye.

His face softened, “Yes, and Kale. Is that what you truly want?”

“More than you know.”

“After he comes back, I’ll do it. Not before. I don’t want to send you back after him and he get you all confused because you won’t remember a thing.”

“Thank you, so much. May I be excused?”

“That is all for now. Next time you come in here for this, I will make you take his place, don’t forget that.”

“Yes, sir,” I bowed to him, turned, and walked briskly outside. Once I was out, I closed the doors, resting the back of my head against it.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Hey, Kellin. Yeah, I’m okay I guess,” I replied, never looking at his gorgeous face.

“Let’s go for a walk. Come on and you can’t tell me no,” he smiled when I glanced an eye at him.

“Fine,” I grumbled, “but don’t think I’m going to be in a good mood right now.”

“I know and that’s okay,” he held his hand out for mine. Once he locked onto mine, he pulled me through the streets and out to the edge where the stars began. He jumped onto one and I jumped on one behind him. We star jumped for at least thirty minutes. The edge was a speck in the distance. We sat across from each other, staring into the others’ eyes.

“Am I a bad person?” I finally asked him

He laughed, “You are far from being a bad person. You’re kind, sweet, a bad ass Soul Collector, funny, and beautiful.”

I blushed and burned a bright red. “Thanks,” I smiled.

“Why are you asking that?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know. I just don’t feel right. I...I asked the Creator for a memory wipe today,” I looked down between us as the shooting stars flew around.

“You did what!?” His voice went up a few octaves with his surprise.

“I don’t want to remember anymore. I can’t handle this. It’s too much for me. I’m in danger of an eternity in solitude.”

“If you do the memory wipe, you won’t remember anything anymore, anyone you’ve met up here...or me,” his voice strained as he swallowed.

“I’m sorry, Kellin, I can’t do this. I can’t get through this shit.”

“Yes, you can. I can help you,” he reached over and grabbed my hand, brought it to his face and kissed it.

“We could start over. I could forget about all the troubles I’ve been through since getting here.”

“But you’ll also forget the good times. You have to have hard times to appreciate the good.”

“That’s true, I suppose. I just need a little time to think about it. I can’t have it done until after I bring Kale back.”

“That was your boyfriend, wasn’t it?” A pained look crossed his face. His mouth set in a hard line and his eyes narrowed some.

“I guess. I don’t know all the details yet. I was trying to piece everything together when I started getting more memories back about the accident. I was murdered. I know that. I was tortured.” I paused briefly. “But you knew all that, right?” I searched his eyes, delving deeper into them.