Judging from the unexpectedness of my summons, and the present condition of her body, her death was likely swift, which was a small blessing.
The woman had children, though, and their sobbing and wailing made it difficult for the woman’s soul to depart. She hovered above her body while her younger daughter clung to the shell of her mother in desperation. It reminded me of the way you clung to me sometimes, as if only in smothering me could you prove I was real.
The older daughter was no less distraught, but she left the domicile to get help. In those few moments of relative calm, I concentrated on soothing the woman’s soul, using my powers to smooth the frayed edges of her energy and infuse her spirit with warmth and light. When her soul was healthy and whole, I tried to help her make sense of what had happened while assuring her that her children were safe.
“He shot me,” she said with bewilderment. She sounded so heartbroken and stunned that it made me wonder if this was an isolated incident or an escalation of abuse.
“He can’t hurt you anymore,” I said to console her, but she was not heartened by it. I sensed that despite whatever problems they’d had, her soul pined for him still.
I didn’t have much time to waste. It was better to reap souls quickly before regret set in. I introduced myself and asked if she’d like to take a walk with me along the water. I described the mild weather, the soft sugar sand shifting between our toes, the warm water lapping at our feet, the beautiful blue hues of the ocean… I wanted to entice her out of this environment, so that I might more easily assist her journey between realms. In the state she was—her soul so melancholy and bloated with grief—I was having trouble convincing her.
“I can’t leave them,” she said and attempted to embrace her younger daughter, but she had no human arms to do so, and despite my infusion, her spirit was growing weaker by the minute. The little girl shivered and only wailed harder.
By then the neighbors had been alerted. When the woman from next door tried to drag the girl away, she bit her, so the woman left the child in a pool of her mother’s blood. The older daughter, having done her duty, appeared to have gone into a state of shock, and rather than make any attempt at comforting her, the neighbors only wrung their hands and waited near the entrance for the police to arrive.
“You protected them,” I told the soul. “You sacrificed yourself so that they might be safe, and now I must save you.”
“Save me?” she asked bitterly. “From what? What could possibly be worse than this?”
This wasn’t the ideal circumstance by any means, but that only meant I needed to try harder.
“I’ve come to collect you so that you can be reunited with those you’ve lost.”
“There is no one I want to see in death,” she said stubbornly, surprisingly cognizant of her situation. “Everyone I love is in this room.”
The police arrived then, and the scene took on a more chaotic tenor. A female officer tried to coax the younger daughter away from the body, but she was stubborn like her mother, neither of them wishing to sever that last tenuous bond between them. Finally, a large male officer grabbed the girl in a bear hug and lifted her away from the body.
“Where are they taking her?” the soul cried frantically.
“To safety,” I replied.
“There is no one else,” she wailed. “I’m all they have.”
“There is nothing more you can do for them now. Their fates are out of your hands.”
That didn’t sit well with the soul, and she hovered defensively over her body, ignoring me entirely. We had a little more time, so I let her grieve in peace and observe the events as they played out. Perhaps she needed closure. One of the officers found the girls’ bedroom and packed some clothes while a forensics team photographed and catalogued the scene. The officers’ expressions were grim and subdued. There were so many family photographs scattered around the house. Almost any other outcome would have been better than the one presented here.
When the activity had mostly died down, the bodies bagged, and the children long gone, I attempted again to persuade the soul into joining me.
“I won’t leave this place,” she said mulishly.
I predicted no amount of gentle imagery or pretty promises would coax her to leave, so I decided to give her the cold, bitter truth.
“Your children will not return, and you will be trapped here for an eternity, confined within these four walls, reliving this trauma as a tormented spirit. You will never again feel the sunshine on your face or the cool breeze against your skin.”
I let the weight of that sink in before continuing. “But if you come with me, your soul will be at peace.” I’d scanned the home for religious artifacts but found none. Still, many in my territory had had a religious upbringing even if they weren’t currently practicing. “You will experience divine grace and mercy. Perhaps one day you will be reborn into a new life, but until then, you must come home. Your god is waiting for you.”
“Fuck your god,” the soul rasped, sounding less human by the second.
Her vehemence threw me, and I made the mistake of trying to negotiate. “If you come with me, there is a chance you will see your little girls again.”
“You’re lying,” she hissed, and I blamed myself. I had waited too long. Her soul had turned hostile.
“Come with me, Lydia,” I begged in a soothing, melodic voice. I’d picked up her name from the conversations in the room, and I hoped using it would tug at her soul as the breeze tugs at a lock of hair. I’d carry her if I had to. “There is nothing but misery for you here.”
Her soul’s energy glowed like an orb. When it burned out, she’d be reduced to what I called soul ash, the precursor to a trapped spirit or lost soul.
Come with me, I said again and again, but I may as well have been trying to seduce a stone.
