"That's three," I noted as Soul transformed back to his human form, the handle of the scythe disappearing from my hand. I ran that same hand through my hair and sighed, suddenly tired. The roof tiles under my feet felt uneven, and I wobbled a bit as I moved closer to the edge. I wanted to get off this roof as soon as possible. Flying over rooftops was easy, standing on them not so much. I trusted magic so much more than my own two feet.
I heard Soul scoff behind me, "It would have been four if Black Star wasn't such a show off." He made a grab for the red discolored soul floating above our heads as I continued to feel around for other frequencies.
"I haven't seen Kid or Black Star for a while," I told him, wringing my hands and staring down into the street. "Do you think they're alright?"
He slipped past me, his arm brushing my shoulder as he jumped down from the roof, where he waited for me to follow, his arms open. "They're the ones who wanted to split up in the first place. They'll be fine, let's worry about ourselves for now." He tilted his head up at me as I sat down, my fingers digging into the tiles, my head spinning slightly as I glanced down.
"You'll catch me, right?" I asked, nervous, and then frowned when he rolled his eyes. "You know I hate heights."
"Do we have to have this conversation every time this happens."
"Just promise Soul!" I snapped at him. He groaned.
"I'll always be here to catch you." He said seriously, and I closed my eyes before moving of the ledge into empty space, freefalling until his arms closed around me, cradling my back and legs. It was hard, so hard, to be normal for things like this, to know that I couldn't catch myself. Not if I wanted to 'keep my cover' as Death had so snidely put it. But just because he had told me not too didn't mean that it wasn't what I immediately wanted to do. It was right there, underneath my skin and it ached that I couldn't use it. Magic. God, I wanted to use it. "Lyra?" I leaned into his chest for a moment longer, breathing in the familiar smell of his cologne before he set me down.
"Thanks."
Soul swung an arm around my shoulder, pulling me towards his motorcycle. "Drop a girl one time – " he muttered under his breath, "– and she's never the same."
"You broke my leg Soul."
"By accident."
I laughed at his expression, "It still hurt."
Despite our rather grim assignment, it was a beautiful night. Balmy and warm, the sky was even clear enough to see stars. It was nice. Though the thought of the other 97 souls – plus the one I really didn't want to think about – we needed to collect was a bit off-putting. But the feeling was fleeting, trailing off to nothing when the air in front of us began to move, almost like a mirage. I was still reaching out so to speak, for other frequencies, so the subtle shift in the atmosphere was noticeable and alarming. It felt… wrong, and dark, crawling over my skin in a way that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
I stopped walking, jerking on Souls arm as he tried to move passed me, an annoyed huff escaping before I grabbed his attention. "Soul," A little bit afraid I pointed, whispering, "Do you see that?" My voice shook, though I would never admit it, and I watched out of the corner of my eye as he looked at me, his gaze wary and concerned. He leaned forward, following the line of my arm and squinted for a long minute before turning to look at me.
"See what Lyra? There's nothing there." He laughed, ready to brush aside my concerns. But I could feel it. Whatever it was. My head swam, and the air was thick as it moved towards us, the wind picking up. My limbs felt heavy and sluggish, like I was walking through water. The ground under my feet swayed, or maybe it was me, and I could see Soul's smile fade as I slumped against him.
0-100 in seconds.
"It's dark." My voice sounded disconnected to my own ears. He grabbed my shoulder, turning me around so he could see into my eyes.
"Ok." He murmured, "Let's call it a night, you're obviously way too tired… maybe it was the flight or something," He pushed me back, a helmet already clutched in his other hand. He held it out to me and motioned to his bike. "I'll call Kid and he can check this out, ok?" Soul wrapped his hand around my elbow, muttering under his breath and giving me worried looks as he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket.
It's too late.
"We should go this way." I whispered, pulling free from the grip he had on my arm.
"Lyra-" he started to call me back, but I wasn't listening. I broke into an uneasy jog, ignoring Soul as he swore and begrudgingly ran after me, calling my name. "Damn it, Lyra, let's go back to the hotel." He sounded annoyed and I knew he didn't think this was serious, he was just humoring me as he often did. But this was different. This was wrong.
I could hear him just behind me, talking to Kid. When he finally caught up to me, I thought it was a sign of growth that he wasn't trying to stop me anymore. Soul simply caught my hand in his, pressing his phone into my palm. "He wants to talk to you. Maybe you'll listen to him when he tells you running off like this is a stupid idea."
He waited, like I was going to answer. I glared instead and brought the phone up to my ear. "Kid?"
"Lyra," he sighed. "Where are you? Soul said yo–"
"Do you feel that?" I interrupted, voice shaking. "That pressure. That evil. They all just disappeared."
I ran faster. Eventually I couldn't hear Soul anymore, and before long I could see the towers of an old church looming above me from a few streets away. Whatever it was, it was in there. My heart thundered, beating against my ribs. "I feel it. Tell me where, Lyra." Kid sounded serious now, deathly serious. "I'll come and get you."
The streets were dark and deserted, and I narrowly avoided running into corners as I skid on the uneven cobblestones. A bell tolled somewhere nearby, and it made the ground beneath my feet shake and my ears ring. And then the trail ended. "The church."
"Church? Which church? There are hundreds here."
It loomed up head, windows dark. Eerie in the fading moonlight. In there. I hesitated in front of the door, panting, hands on my knees as I bent over to catch my breath. "The old one, in the middle of the city." I placed a hand against the stone arch that stretched over the doors, felt the chill seep into my skin. "Should I pray, Kid?"
A motorcycle roared up behind me, the sound echoing in the empty courtyard. Soul jumped off, throwing his helmet to the ground as he stalked over, his eyes a darker red than usual. He wrapped his hand around my arm, his grip tight enough to leave a bruise. He took his phone back, and Kids' voice was small and urgent. Neither of us were listening.
"You should have waited for me." His voice was low. "I don't like it when you go where I can't protect you Lyra, we're in Italy for a reason." He let me go, taking a step back before looking at me again. "You want to tell me what the hell's wrong with you?"
I spun on him, pointing towards the church and laughed. "That, Soul." I said. "There were almost fifty human souls inside this building, and now they're all just gone. Gone. It's dark inside, cold. It's evil. And that's what is wrong with me." I grabbed his hand. "We should go inside."
"No, we should not." Ignoring his sputtered protests, I pushed open the heavy door, watching with bated breath as moonlight spilled into the empty cathedral, shining off polished silver and stained-glass windows.
"I don't know about you, but I don't exactly think that's normal." I could see dust floating, moving across the floor before coming to rest against a pair of shoes. My breath caught, and I suddenly felt sick, my eyes following a haze of black cloth upwards before resting on a pale face. The face of a child.
I felt rather than saw Soul move closer to me, pushing me behind him, stepping completely in front of me like a human shield and pressing me back. I huffed gently and placed my hands on his shoulders, trying in vain to see over him.
"Soul."
He tensed under my palms as he took a few slow steps forward at my prodding.
"It's just a kid." That same kid had turned to face us at the sound of my voice. And then his eyes met mine and I wasn't so sure that I was looking at a child at all.
"Hmmm." The strange boy crooned. "What's this Ragnarok? More people?" He stood alone, in the middle of the room, and his soul was a normal human blue, a candle shining out in the dark that surrounded us. Except for one thing.
"His soul wavelength." I whispered, trying to duck out from behind Soul's arm. "It's so strange." I had gripped the material of Souls jacket hard enough my knuckles turned white as we padded further into the room, my body pressing against Soul's in an effort to move him forward. I barely flinched as the door swung shut behind us with a bang, clouding my vision in semi-darkness.
"That door only opens one way."
The strange boy hadn't moved, only watched with disinterested grey eyes as we came closer, an off-kilter smile sitting frozen on his face. "Hey." Soul yelled, startling me. "Where'd all those people go that were in here with you?" He had us stop a respectable distance away, gaze wary.
"People?" The boy simpered. "Ragnarok was hungry, and I don't know how to deal with him when he's like that. He scares me. So, I had to kill them. He wanted me to." He looked around nervously and took a step back before whispering conspiringly. "They weren't very nice people anyway." Just as suddenly as he had moved away, he came closer, tilting his head.
"My blood is black you know."He moved slowly, the tip of a sword I hadn't even seen him holding cutting into the granite floor behind him. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, or hearing someone scream. But that wasn't what caught my attention. No, it was the blood. The sword was dripping red, a garish splash of color in our otherwise monochrome surroundings.
"What the fuck?" The words had left my mouth before I could stop them, unintelligible, but the sound of my voice was enough for Soul to shift his attention towards me.
He turned his head to look at me, eyes briefly connecting with mine before nodding in understanding and shifting into a scythe, his face reflecting at me through the blade. "I'm sorry." I told the boy. "But I'm going to have to take your soul."
After all, equivalent exchange was everything.
He sniffled. "Take my soul? You mean you're going to kill me?" Shifting his stance, I watched the fingers around the hilt of his sword tighten. He smiled, and the expression on his faced was twisted. "You can try."
And then we were lost, in the sound sight and smell that was two people fighting to kill. Sparks burned my hands when our blades met, and the boy's eyes were so hollow it was like gazing into an endless void. The floor shook beneath my feet, and I could feel blood running in a line down my left cheek. I could taste iron. It felt like seconds. It could have been hours.
"Why isn't this working Soul?!" My arms were getting tired, my legs unstable, and my attacks sloppy. I hadn't managed to hit him – not even once. But he had landed plenty on me. This outfit was completely ruined.
"I don't know! I'm not getting anything on him."
A burst of something dark sprayed across my vision, and I was thrown back, lashing out even as my body hit a stone pillar midway through my flight across the room. I choked on the dust that was kicked up as I landed and blinked in surprise at the dots of red covering my wrists and sleeves. "That was not fun." I groaned and moved to roll over, my shoulder aching from my rather rough landing.
"Soul!" I cried, panicking when I realized I was alone. He had slid away from me, spinning across the floor to rest against the wall. Disconnected I couldn't hear him speak and I stood, wincing at the blood that seemed to cover a good portion of his scythe form. I just hoped it wasn't his. His face shone at me from the black and red blade, and there was what looked like a line of red dripping down his chin.
"I'm fine." He panted. "Stop worrying and get rid of this guy already. This is so not cool."
"But-" Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye, and I turned slowly, looking up into the shadowed archways of the ceiling. "We've got to get out of here Soul." And he was still so far away.
Drip
Drip
Drip
I followed the sound, looked at the pool of dark liquid on the floor. The one that hadn't been there before.
I looked up.
A spider?
It was a nightmare.
The boy hung from the ceiling, long dark tendrils stretching from his back to hold his body up against the ceiling, taking support from the beams. After what felt like an eternity tense silence and staring his concentration appeared to waver, the tendrils reaching from his back crumbling and turning to dust. He hit the floor on his feet with a heavy thud and I could only watch, horrified, as he moved closer.
"You cut me." The boy tilted his head, sword once again dragging on the ground behind him. It caught the light as he moved, and the jagged outline of teeth came into clear relief the closer he was to the corner I was huddled in. Sharp teeth that moved. He brought his hand up to his cheek, to the shallow cut that was already beginning to heal over.
Where is Soul? Because I was having a really hard time moving. Shaking and paralyzed. If my sisters could see me now.
He slipped in a small puddle of his own dark blood, leaving behind black footprints. "I told you my blood is black." The mouth on his sword opened wider, and I only paused for a moment before running towards the door, pushing at it and pulling at the handle until it splintered off into my hand.
I could feel Soul's outrage at my cowardice. But I knew not to fight a fight I couldn't win.
"What're you doing?! The fights back there!" He had changed, running towards me in human form, only a few feet away. It was still too far though, and the boy got to me first.
"Lyra!" Soul reached out and I grabbed his hand. He shifted back, ready to fight, wanting me to fight. But I was shaking and the sweat and blood covering my hands made for a slippery hold. He had looked like a spider. It wasn't a coincidence - things like this, things like her never were. And I could smell smoke and feel the burn of flames against my back. I was holding onto Soul's scythe form with one hand, the other still tearing at the door with a desperation I would never admit too if we got out of this alive. "Lyra, please!" Now he was the one who sounded panicked.
I ignored him, spinning back around in time to feel the corner of the dark blade skim over my shoulder, some of my dark hair floating towards the floor. I felt the boy's breath on my cheek as he leaned uncomfortably close. "Don't you remember?" He whispered. "The door only opens the one way." He laughed as he swung his sword at me, smiling the longer I continued to block him.
"What are you waiting for Lyra! Fight back!" Soul yelled.
Sweat ran down the back of my neck.
His irritation was clear through our soul resonance. "Stop messing around!"
"I'm not!" I yelled back at him. "I'm not, I-" I was running out of time, my arms shook, and my hand was starting to bleed with how roughly I was digging my nails into the wood of the door. Breathing was starting to get harder, and the boys dark eyes seemed to almost reach into my soul, choking me.
"It's over for you."
Time slowed down, and I could see, all I could feel, was red. I reached out blindly, my eyes wide. Three seconds. That's all the time it took.
There was a loud bang, splinters of wood digging themselves into my already bloody cheeks as I fell onto my knees. I could hear screaming as I leaned over, raw fingers now biting into cold stone, tears falling on torn fabric. Was it me? Was I the one screaming? I couldn't tell.
"Soul?"