“Yin! No, no I can’t stop him from dissociating! His soul won’t stop leaking out!”

“Mr Yin, if you leave your body, the Soulless will come right for you!”

Noise floods my eyes, the world before me is a myriad of colourful threads–all the slivers of the souls of people across the horizon, like some sort of a spiderweb of colours connected to the sky and the ground and each other. I look at my hands. A familiar summoning rune is drawn on my palm. I didn’t have any other choice, I don’t have the soul phone here. I thought if I drew the rune onto myself there was a chance of getting transported back to him. But the pain still lingers, and I am still not in the home that I was supposed to move into. 

I am the image of my original self. A bright red aura. I feel light, floaty. And I can sense a tingling power within my hands. Within myself. No apparent tether to my chest, no weight to my body. My soul has dissociated from Emily’s body completely. Will he come for me now?

“Mr Yin, is that you?!”

I look to the sound, a mass of green light, wonderful, vivid, deadly. Its name is Ray. “What did you do?”

“Mr Yin, you just underwent Soul Dissociation, didn’t you! If we don’t complete the ritual, the Soulless won’t dissipate!”

“Dude, you look like a big red balloon on a string!”

A golden mass, faint yet sturdy is next to her. Its name is Sika. I know him well. The Soul Bind appears at the base of my ‘feet’. I turn to Ray. “What ritual?” I ask. My heart runs cold. “I thought you were on our side.”

Sika looks at her in disbelief. “What…?”

“I…” She squeezes her hands, stressed. “I made a contract…with the Azure Bird. It promised that I could see Robert again! The moment the ritual is complete, the rune will light up and select one soul to return to the world of the living. There’s a chance that he could return to me!”

“And you needed a body.” I look down. Emily’s lifeless body lies in Sika’s arms. “You planned this. You wanted revenge.”

Ray puts her hands together and kneels on the ground. “I’m sorry. I was…desperate. After Robert died, I wanted to find him! And when I got here, you just happened to be the very person who took him from me!”

I scoff. I saw Judgement receive his record. I witnessed your relief in recognising me. “You’re lyin–”

“Yin! Look out!” Sika grabs Emily’s body and pulls Ray away, his shield knocking me back. It’s only then that I realise, the Soulless have turned their eyes to me once again.

I fly into the air and a swarm of Soulless come after me. In the midst of lightening, several pairs of gleaming empty coloured eyes stare right at me. An eerie chorus of voices rings out through the rain.

“He looks so tasty!”

“Ooh yummy yummy!”

                                          “A red soul! It’s a red soul!”

      “Eat eat eat eat eat”

                                                                        “He’s mine!”

                  “No, mine!”

                                           “Eat him!”

The Azure Bird flies through them, making a large arc in the clouds with its light. The rune is lighting up. Its shrill call signifies the ritual is almost complete. I shoot off.

“Eat!” A purple soul grabs my ankle and I wince. “Let go!”

“Yin!” Sika grabs a fist full of stones and hurls it upwards, engulfed in golden light. The creature makes a wail, eats the stones and lets go of my leg, sending me spinning a few feet upwards into the storm. The Soulless rush at me. I make my best efforts to avoid them, but it’s getting harder and harder the further away I am from the ground.

“Mr Yin! Your soul is tied to Emily’s body right now! I don’t think you can–”

“Agh!” A tug at my chest sends me plummeting downwards. Sika’s lifted Emily onto his back. The thin string tethering me to Emily’s body and his soul are probably my lifelines. If either gets cut then I’m done for. “Sika! Contact your god! Get us outta here!”

“I tried–can’t reach him!”

“Just wait! It’s almost done!” Ray grabs Emily’s body from Sika and I’m tugged further down.

“You–!”

                                                                                            “Enough.”

A bolt of lightning strikes the ground, sparks fly from the impact. The call of the bird shrieks beside my ear, combining with the sound of a blade slicing through air. I find myself falling, my heart racing with the wind.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

I hit the ground and gasp for air, despite my form. A black smoke surrounds the three of us, cutting off all light from the world.

“What’s happening!”

“Dude, what’s goin’ on?”

Ray’s soul licks at my hands hungrily as she helps me up. Her eyes reflect the dissipating rune in the sky for a second before Sika shoves her back and stands between us. I stagger and take a step towards them, only to feel a cold hand on my shoulder emerge from behind.

“Yin Rivers.”

The words I want to say to him are stuck in my throat. The sky is plunged into darkness as the sounds of the Soulless and the Azure Bird are drowned out by silence and an overbearing black smoke. I try to face him, but Death holds me in place. I can feel his scythe against my neck and his shaky breathing against my ear. “You disobeyed me...again.”

“…”

“Do you not heed my words?” His voice is a little unstable. He breathes erratically and shifts his hands down to my chest, pressing on the place which had been injured before. It stings. I can only try to pry his hand off as he faces me. “You take me as a joke?” His voice is deeper than usual and twists my expression strangely. I slowly meet his eyes. They stare coldly back into mine. I feel a lump form in my chest.

Ray and Sika cautiously approach us. Death steps forward and gives them a cold look. “All three of you, you will come with me. Unto punishment.”

“Punishment?!” Sika blurts out.

“Did I grant you the permission to speak, mortal?” He swipes at his feet with his scythe and Sika falls to his knees. Ray quickly drops to the ground alongside him. Death turns to look down at me and firmly presses his hand onto my shoulder. “Kneel.”

“I–”

“I SAID, KNEEL!”

The pressure from his hand forces me onto my knees. I do not dare to look up.