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Purge Inc.
Into the Vortex
By: Everleigh Allen
Chapter 8

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Bella woke up in a dark room with her arms extended out and stretching. Her body ached like she had been asleep for too long without moving. There wasn't any indication of how long she had been out or even where she was being kept. She just knew she didn't want to stay.

"Hello?" She called out into the cold, damp air. The ominous space was seemingly open yet constricting. The invisible truncated interim of being trapped in one of the conditioning ducts between the floors. Perhaps it was the in between. She had heard of this place once or twice but she couldn't recall how to get out.

Searching for a door seemed futile with no light and no way out that she could find. After an expansive search she finally gave up when the mist flowed around, blanketing her in heavy, hazy swirls. Bits of the haze glowed creating a melancholy vapor that caressed her face and neck. It was then that she realized it wasn't a misty haze. It was more like the essence of spirits who didn't have enough of themselves left to be an actual cognitive spirit floating around in an airborne sea. They pulled at her hair and clothing, their groans barely a whisper yet disturbingly troubling. If she wasn't already dead, she may have been afraid, but she was more bored and annoyed at Chloe than anything else.

"What are they keeping me from?" Bella thought as she fumbled around a little. The unforgiving floor was hard and would have been uncomfortable to someone who would have had an actual physical body but the insubstantial space was like a weighted blanket and she was oddly at ease as she could be as each moment passed in the new void home.

"I'm Henry the eighth I am, Henry the eighth I am, I am," She sang, lying down in the mist, scissoring her arms out and back watching the wispy souls begrudgingly spin and swirl like smoke. She was completely invisible that way, which was ideal. Perhaps some other unfortunates would trip over her like they did in the ghost holes.

She laughed.

Ghost holes would be epic here in the in between, but completely useless.

It was nice and distracting. She watched as the mist collected above her and formed into pictures.

"Are you trying to show me something? How clever! What are you trying to show me?" She smiled but there was no answer, just more swirling movement. She could start to see people moving around, like when she would sit at the mirrors.

All at once the picture cleared and she saw a large glossy coffin with flowers being thrown on it as it was being lowered to the ground.

Bella's eyebrows knitted together in confusion, but it finally had her proper attention. The large, deep-rooted, watchful trees were all around, waving in the soft breeze, while a large fountain with swans in various stages of flight gave the ambiance of peace with its tinkling water. An older woman pulled at the hand of a small little girl who didn't want to leave. The figure of a man appeared as he swiftly snatched her up in his arms and carried her away.

The scene sped around to several faces, none that she could recognize until it landed on the man from Jake's file. He looked different; slightly younger but with an unbridled anger. He cradled the little girl's head to his and whispered something to her, eye to eye. Bella watched as the little girl nodded sadly, tucking her pouty bottom lip into her mouth to the point where her lips almost disappeared. The man then looked back and reached for the woman with slick hair rigidly parted down the middle. Her fair skin and pinched red lips were a huge contrast from her crisp black suit with thin white lines. Her white knuckled grip on the matching purse reflected the sun for a slight moment before Bella could see the metal pin of a running horse.

Bella eagerly watched in amazement, seeing the gravestone as the mist twisted around it. On the front was a smiling woman with her same color hair, eyes, and features stared back at her. She was holding the little girl now, but the man behind her was covered in the mist. She tried to get a closer look, but there was nothing she could do or see and it quickly dissipated into the void right as she was about to make out the letters of a name.

Screams filled the void as she searched the mist for another glimpse of what she was shown moments before, but she was alone in the silence in the abyss of broken souls.

Sobs overtook her. Her hands moved across the black floor searching desperately for a way out- or for a way to the people she saw before.

Anything.

There was nothing.

Bella didn't know how long she remained in the void.

She could hear other screams and pleas from others but she never where they were in any relation to her.

A personal Hell of sorts.

But one thing she learned was that she could feel their pain because it was her own. Every wailing cry, every sharp scream, every gasp of realization hit her over and over as if her whole body had been asleep for so long and it was starting to wake back up- but only the needling feeling of pain came.

Never did she remember feeling pain since her passing. She remembered she felt numb and aloof, but never such anguish and anger sensitivities. She seethed from every bit of her existence. How she got into Purgatory or how she passed, her name was gone, and a child and partner she could bet were hers were also taken from her.

And she didn't know why.

The mist of fractured souls continued to swirl around her, pulling at her as they passed by, whispering words she didn't understand.

It was pure torture.

She wondered if they were once just like her- broken, getting glimpses of a life that was long gone with a family who didn't remember her and they of it all and those fissures of spirit finally succumbed and dispersed rather than feel all the pain. She wondered if they eventually gave up trying to get back to their lives and the families and into the body and the life they once had. She couldn't really blame them. It seemed like an acute state of torture being there in wait. It felt as if she never existed. There were no office hijinks, no laughing at the sock mountain turning into a volcano of molten socks and there was no goodnight kisses from a little girl who probably cried for her mommy at night- a mommy that would never come back.

Anger pulsed, as she grasped all that had been taken from her in a moment. Who did this to her and why? Did she pass from a disease that she tried to overcome or did someone harm her?

Bella cried out, the not knowing was agony.

"Shh,"

Bella stilled. Her eyes darted, searching, but she didn't see anyone. Her chest hurt from heaving cries.

"Remember who you are," The voice whispered.

Closer.

There was a small obstruction in the mist and Bella timidly reached out for it, but came up empty handed.

"I can't," Bella sobbed, though no tears would fall.

Lying back on the floor, Bella let the mist cover her like a blanket as she wept for her life that was gone.

The voice started humming a song, one that was vaguely familiar and her mind raced trying to recall the words. She knew it was a lullaby, though she couldn't remember if it was an old one or one they had made up.

"The sunshine song," Bella sighed, her mind hurt, her eyes stung, her chest clenched. "We changed the words. It was the only thing we could sing that made her calm down."

The voice hummed which seemed to wrap around her like a warm blanket.

"You are my baby, my precious baby-" Bella croaked. "She was so little with bright golden eyes like the Sun."

A small memory of a toddling little girl with very little hair and a toothy grin moved to the front of her mind like a reward and she was desperate for more, but she was soon carried away with the mist and Bella wailed, grasping for the little girl.

"What kind of place is this?" Bella sobbed. Her body was heavy and sore but there was no answer. The misty souls pulled at her again in the abyss. The dark seemed to turn colder and she shuddered, her body was oddly reactive.

"How can I remember what has been stolen from me?" She shrieked into the ethers. "Was I so horrible of a person in life that I had to come here? Was I such a bad wife and mother that I must pay for something?"

But all her questions remained unanswered.

Pulling at her hair, she buckled in pain, her cries echoing for an instant and coming right back to her like a knife causing her to recoil. It was followed with many wails from others sharing in her pain.

"I'm sorry," She whimpered.

The screams quieted.

Chloe suddenly came to mind and the meeting they had where she explaining Bella messed with the fates of the souls she was to take, but there was more to it than that- there had to be. The fates had to know all- they had to know all along that she'd intervene and when she'd push the button, if she did really intervene at all. But why punish her for doing as they expected? Why take her away from the job she was told to do- unless there was something she was missing.

There had to be something that Bella was missing.

She thought of Chloe touching her nose, then waking up there. Then funeral, the little girl, and-

It all clicked in an instant.

"Chloe!" She hissed. She balled her fists in anger and slammed them on the ground, feeling the sting of the impact.

She cried out in pain for a moment, instantly regretting it when other cries of pain followed suit.

It was then that Bella noticed she could feel anger, pain, and sorrow here, but not much else. "You did this, didn't you?" She struggled but finally rose to her feet, her body smarting from the intense pressure. "You're hiding me, aren't you?" Her eyes were wild, searching. "What else are you trying to hide, little fate? Was I getting too close?" Bella bit out with a wail

The mist whirled around her like one of her tornados, pulling hard at her hair and clothes but she stood defiant. Bella didn't need an answer, though. She already knew the truth and she knew that wherever she was she would somehow get out and wherever Chloe was, she was watching… probably with popcorn.

Bella sobbed quietly as she finally succumbed to the pressure and collapsed.

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Humming as she walked through the fog of souls, Lacey soon passed the woman lying on the ground toward a spot no one could see but her. Lacey looked around at the small amount of souls that remained quietly before she sat on the chair, still humming. She picked up one of her pieces of lace, inspecting it closely, paying little mind to the sudden screams and wails around her. Mostly there was little left of the souls to save. They were beyond fragmented and reactive towards the other souls around them.

They would be attended to in due time, thus, easily ignored.

But there was a new cry which caught her attention.

Lacey frowned; disliking the way the woman was curled in a ball and seemed unresponsive to her presence.

The woman's swallow cheeks and eye sockets made her look like so many of the poor souls Lacey had seen countless times before, though she didn't know why this one was different.

Perhaps she was an exception?

Or maybe she reminded her of herself at one point- feeling that she was forever seemingly in such a purgatory state, waiting for a love that would never come.

Perhaps it was how selfless the woman was, too.

Lacey couldn't tell the poor soul why she was there or what she had to do to ascend her soul of to the space she currently found herself in- that was always up to them, but she could, if anything, give her a leg up- so to speak.

If, of course, the woman was to wake up.

Her fingers moved towards the woman's clothing which seemed torn. It was all an illusion of course. They didn't really have clothing like they did on the physical planes, but it was as real to them as it was to those on the other side of the veil. Both had their equivalent of tangible items that they used in their arrival. It was all part of the master plan.

With a sigh, Lacey pulled out a small lock of the woman's hair but she still didn't budge. She brought the strands right to her left eye and looked closely at it, inspecting it. She then took the scrap of string that hung from one of her scarves and inspected it, too.

They seemed the same.

"Oh, dear." Lacey sighed again but with exasperation. She carefully rolled the hairs with the string between her fingers and watched as they soon became one, much like turning wool fibers into thread.

She then picked up a small satchel and placed the string inside of it for safe keeping.

Getting up, Lacey moved through the void towards the woman at her feet. The fog seemed to move carefully around her dress as Lacey bent down to tend to the woman's torn clothes. She carefully pulled some thread from a bobbin and a needle from her leather belt and started to sew.

It would have looked quite comical had Bella been awake. Lacey's dress was intricately weaved with what looked like scraps of cloth that were sewn together like a patchwork quilt. A rainbow of macramé scarves donned her hips with long, intricate strands of lace most with frayed strings with little wooded spindles at the end, dangled and clinked together with each step or movement further sewing the laces. She looked as if she was a gypsy with her hair tossed up on the top of her head and small ribbons knotting the strands to keep out of her face.

A sharp wind instantly kicked up and Lacey couldn't help the slight curve of her lip as soon as she noticed the sharp cinnamon smell. She righted herself in her seat instantly as the fog covered the woman again.

"Sister," The voice bit out in greeting, which made Lacey smile wider.

"Ah, Chloe… what brings you here?" Her sharp eyes darted to her sister for a slight moment before she took to her sewing again, pulling another needle from her thick leather belt and stringing a brand new thread into the lace she was working on.

"I could ask you the same, but I'd be wasting both of our time." A petulant smirk on her elvish face made Chloe look impossibly young, but it was misleading.

"Then perhaps you should be on your way. You've done enough already, it seems."

Chloe glared at her sister. "You're interfering." The sickly sweet smile looked menacing in the shadows.

"Am I?" Lacey grinned. Her eyes, a swirling blue like a churning ocean whirlpool held Chloe in her gaze until she managed to break it.

"Yes," Chloe hissed. "You can't fix this." She gestured over Bella as if it proved her point.

Lacey shrugged. "Who said I wished to fix what you are hiding. That is for you to fix, is it not?"

Chloe's fists balled at her side for a slight moment but Lacey noticed.

Another chair appeared out of nowhere and Lacey gestured to her sister then the chair. "Have a seat, dear sister. It will be a time before Atty arrives."

"Of course you called Atty." Glowering, Chloe petulantly sat in the chair, almost kicking Bella who was just to their side. For a moment she wondered why Atty would be there for such an insignificant human soul.

"I remember her string well," Lacey sighed, concentrating on sewing and knotting her strings. "I remember each and every one."

"Your point?"

Lacey's eyes instantly darted to her sisters and held her stare. "Her string was cut short… much shorter than I gave her."

"You don't say." Chloe scoffed but her eyes fell to a section on Chloe's hips. To anyone else, it would look like a small compact, but there were thousands of bobbins that held countess lines of silky threads to be measured along with a tiny spinning wheel that she could easily morph into a more manageable size as she needed.

"You think me and Atty did this?"

"I know you did this," Lacey gestured around them as wispy souls and fog moved around with the motion, "Just like you sent her here to hide her."

"I did nothing of the sort!"

Lacey smiled and pulled out a string from her satchel. "Missing something?" Chloe gasped and looked at her bobbins, seeing the thread was missing. She reached out to grab the greenish thread but it instantly disappeared.

"You can't send her back!" Chloe hissed.

"Isn't that my job?" Lacey chuckled without humor. "It's time to tell her the truth. Let her choose what she would like to do. I have to give her the options available to her, you understand."

"No I don't understand. This one has no options!"

"They always have options, sister. Whether they realize them or not."

"Sisters," Atty gave a curt smile as she slowly coasted up to them. She didn't even seem to be walking; her gauzy gown glowed bright in the darkness, almost as if there was a bluish spot light on her. But it was her natural state. Large sheers glinted in the rare bits of muted light, as she moved forward.

"Ah, Atty! Right on time!"

Chloe crossed her arms over her chest, glowering. "Lachesis here was just sharing that she plans to set this soul forward." Chloe's fingers motioned toward Bella on the ground like she was pointing out lint on a newly dusted hutch.

Atty, a statuesque woman in gauzy pale blue linens and thick curls turned to look at the waif of a woman on the ground. She clucked her tongue at the sight of her. "You can't send her back like that."

Chloe grinned which turned into a smirk when she turned to Lacey but it instantly fell. Lacey showed her a small web of threads. "What's this?"

"You're web," It was Lacey's turn to smirk but it only lasted a moment. "Each knot is a moment you created on her string tying her to that soul. As you can see, she is already part of the pattern of these different lives. Pulling her string away unravels many, as you are well aware. Something you both were a part of… one creates the soul string, one ends it- but where was I in all of this, dear sisters?"

"You don't understand," Chloe hissed as she moved like a cat around Lacey until she got to Atty's side. "You can't send her back- even if she still has some string left. She's going to be dead again soon and right back here."

Lacey pursed her lips, "Then what shall I do with the rest of her string? What should I do with this little piece of her soul, hmm?"

The sisters were silent as sobs moved around them in echo.

Lacey snapped her fingers and the piece of string that represented Bella was instantly gone.

"You can't!"

"It's already done, my loves," Lacey said quietly; her eyes darting from one sister to another with all humor erased from her face. "Don't mess with me or my souls again."

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A/N: Chloe= Clotho (the spinner, Spun the thread), Lacey= Lachesis (Alotter, Dispensed the thread), Atty=Atropos (Inflexible, cut the thread)