TW - gore (glimpsed in a memory), violence

Chapter 10

Scilla and I project out our smoke, forcing the black haze further from us. Reaching out for Lucinda’s hand, I pull her towards us, where we can protect her better. But as soon as she stumbles against us, I know something is wrong.

“Lucinda? What’s wrong with your mouth?” I whisper, dread blooming deeper in my stomach. “What?” Lucinda asks, wiping the back of her hand against her lips. 

She can’t see it.

But I can. And Scilla can.

And all we can do is watch as Lucinda’s soul begins to slip out from her body as it’s sucked towards the disgusting smoke around us to become a part of it. Scilla and I double down on our own grey haze, trying to force the dark smoke back, but all we can do is keep it away from us.

“Jess how do we get the black smoke out of her? It’s stealing her soul!” Scilla screams in my mind, sobbing as we clutch Lucinda to us the moment her legs give out. “I don’t know, I don’t- I don’t know anything!” I let out a scream of anger and sadness as Lucinda’s eyes flutter shut and more of her soul is stolen into the black smoke.

“Please, please don’t leave me,” I whisper, tears falling onto Lucinda as I clutch her tightly. White smoke joins mine as a Grim Reaper steps out of the black smoke, his expression grave as he regards us.

“I’m sorry. There’s nothing either of us can do; her soul is almost completely gone. All I can- all I can offer is to take her soul, and deliver it to Heaven’s waiting room, instead of letting the phantom consume it,” the Reaper says softly, his expression somber.

“Don’t let him take her! Don’t take her away from me please I’m begging you, Jess I can’t lose her I can’t!” Scilla sobs in my mind, but I nod. “Please, don’t let the phantom have her,” I whisper. Scilla screams in my mind and I double over in pain, sobbing as hard as Scilla as we watch the Grim Reaper catch the very last trickle of Lucinda’s soul, and place it in a little box. 

And then his eyes fall back on me.

“Phantom. It’s time I took you back to Hell’s waiting room.”

But before he can even make a single move, the Greater Phantom steps through the door.

—————

-Grim Reaper K45-

Days of searching, but not a peep from that phantom. Just as I have to give in on hunting down this spirit and turn my attention to a different one, I feel it. A massive amount of power, released all at once.

Two colliding veils, going against each other.

Two phantoms are fighting?

Focusing on the feeling, I open a rift in my veil to a place that I don’t recognise, right on the edge of my jurisdiction and another Grim Reaper’s. But they aren’t here, so capturing these phantoms is up to me alone.

And I’m powerful, I know that much. I can take on a phantom easily, but I also know that this is more than I can handle.

I have to go after the smaller, less powerful one.

Holding a gloved hand to my mouth, using my veil around me in an effort to keep the phantom’s dark veil away, I step through the door of the apartment. A woman is crying on the floor, an interesting shade of grey veil billowing around her and forcing the much darker veil away. 

But I don’t see another phantom anywhere - only the one in the body of the woman crying…unless the other woman is a phantom? No, she’s just a human, and a nearly dead one at that. Her soul is being drained by the darker veil all around them.

Projecting my own light veil out, I try and save what’s left of the human woman’s soul, but her soul continues to seep from the corner of her mouth in white wisps. 

“Please, please don’t leave me,” the phantom woman cries, holding onto the human tightly. So I do the only thing I can think of. I take the woman’s soul, and I keep it close to my chest. I will deliver her to Heaven later, but right now…

There are two phantoms that need dealing with.

I turn my attention to the one in front of me, but the sound of a door slamming shut has us both turning around to watch the Greater Phantom. He oozes a veil so dark that it must contain many, many souls within it.

“I do believe that you took something of mine, just now,” he says heavily, taking a step towards me, his veil flitting back to him and forming into a shape that I recognise.

No.

There’s no way.

This phantom…how does he have Reaper powers?

“I suppose, another Reaper soul wouldn’t hurt my collection now would it,” he hums thoughtfully, raising the gun made from his black veil, and pointing it at me.

“But no, that’s not the reason I’m here. There’s only one soul I want more than anything,” he continues, moving to aim at the other phantom instead. 

“I will never let you touch Scilla again,” the phantom in the woman’s body hisses, pushing himself off the floor to stand next to me. It seems that at least this phantom and I agree that we are the lesser of two evils, when it comes to facing this Greater Phantom.

“Funny. But I wasn’t talking about Scilla - although I suppose this body would love to kill her, I’m sure. But dear Robert, I was talking about you.”

The phantom beside me lets out a small cry, before shaking his head.

“Who the fuck are you?” He hisses, pressing a hand to his mouth. The Greater Phantom grins, his mouth like a rip.

“Oh I’m not sure, perhaps carving your name into your skin would help jog your memory?”

Disgusting.

This Greater Phantom is revolting.

“You’re- you’re my mother?” The phantom beside me chokes out, and I begin feeling sick to my stomach. I thought he killed his parents out of cold blood, and that’s why he’s a phantom and an evil spirit. 

But the real evil spirits like this Greater Phantom seem far worse.

“No you fucking idiot. I’m your dearest dad, obviously - we both had a go, but you must have forgotten,” the phantom snarls, releasing the trigger.

I unleash as much of my veil as possible, trying to protect both myself and the other phantom, but I was too late. The bullet of pure darkness pierces the woman’s chest, and the phantom lets out a scream. 

A scream of pain and anguish, but most strongly…of sadness.

The body falls to the floor, and I reach out to stop the collision but multiple things happen at once.

Firstly, as soon as I touch the body of the phantom, I see hundred of memories right before my eyes. 

Horrible, atrocious memories.

Memories that the phantom had locked away so deeply within his soul, that even he didn’t have access to them.

But the moment our skin touches, we both see them all.

And I know everything.

A girl’s body, dripping blood across a boy as he sits in complete shock, as she dies in his arms. 

A man, a disgusting sneer on his lips, a gun in his hands, pointing it towards the boy.

A last ditch effort to preserve his own life.

A final fight back.

A loud crack as the man falls, his head smacking against a metal table.

A pool of blood billowing around his head.

An accident.

A gun, abandoned on the floor.

A scream as a woman raises a knife, ready to end the boy’s life.

A cry of pain as the knife bites into the boy’s flesh.

A malicious snarl as the woman tries again, this time with the hope of landing a mortal blow.

A final sigh as the woman’s own knife bites into her chest instead.

An accident.

A boy, sobbing hysterically at the realisation of what he just did.

A loud bang, and then blinding pain.

A final look of satisfaction on the man’s face, before his hand drops the gun.

A final breath, as the man succumbs to his head wound.

A final cry, as the boy bleeds to death, shot through his heart.

I know it all.

And then, a soul like yin and yang seeps out from between the body’s lips, and rips itself in half. The light half is snatched up by the Greater Phantom, but I at least manage to capture the dark half before the Greater Phantom can.

The Greater Phantom lets out a rage-filled scream and sends its pitch black veil towards me, and I use the remainder of my power to create another rift in my veil. Diving into it, I clutch the dark soul to my chest, not having time to put it in a soul box like I did to the other human woman’s soul. 

Instead, all I can do is hope that we make it far enough away that the Greater Phantom can’t follow us.