A Chronical of Life and Death

She had been aware of the Poor Soul approaching and had, as was his ritual, had hidden the familiar life carefully before it arrived.
'Hello there,' She began, as usual.
'Hello again,' said the Poor Soul, with a strange infliction which Christall finally recognised as something between fear and determination.
'Er, have we met before?' She stammered, unnerved at the thought of a Poor Soul that was rich enough to carry emotion.
'Yes,' replied the Soul, 'I was here a while back. You gave me a life, I don't know if you remember?'
'Um, well, I give out rather a lot of those, you see,' explained Christall apologetically, although, of course, she thought she knew exactly which life the Soul was talking about. Christall had never come across the same Poor Soul twice before. She had been given to understand that life was something of a one-way process, and wherever it exited, it was not meant to be here.
'Yes,' the Soul continued, clearly uncomfortable but resolved to get through the encounter nonetheless, 'I thought perhaps you might. Um. It was a rather nice little European number? About so long? Ended with a death at sea.'
'Ah, yes, I remember now,' admitted Christall, deciding that this one was not going to be fobbed off, and might as well be tackled head-on, 'How did you like it?'
< 8 >
'Well, the sea was nice,' said the Soul quickly, obviously eager not to hurt Christall’s feelings, 'But, well, it wasn't exactly what I'd had in mind...'
'Really? You must have liked the death, at least?'
'Actually, I didn't get to that bit,' the Soul confessed, somewhat sheepishly.
'Didn't get to it!' exclaimed Christall, thunderstruck, 'Well then, however did you get here?'
'Oh, you know ...' said the Soul vaguely.
'I'm afraid I don't'
'Well, it was simple, really,' stammered the Soul, 'I just, well, decided that it wasn't really my cup of tea. You know, it was very comfortable and all that but it just didn't feel, well, me.'
'You just decided to come back?' said Christall, disbelievingly. She had never thought that this might be even remotely possible.
'Yes,' said the Soul, and then plunged on quickly before its courage could fail, 'The thing is, you see, I kept finding myself thinking about that other life.'
'Other life,' interrupted Christall sharply.
'Yes, you know that one you were looking at when I first came to see you.'
'Don't know what you're talking about,' growled Christall through metaphysical teeth which were, metaphysically, gritted.
'Oh, surely you remember? You were looking at it quite closely when I arrived. Well, there was just something about that life which sort of glowed at me. I'm afraid I don't know how else to put it ...' The Soul trailed off apologetically.
There was an extended silence.
Christall was just wondering how she might go about getting rid of the Soul when the little thing piped up suddenly.
'Oh, here it is,' it exclaimed happily, 'Yes, this is the one I'm talking about.'
To Christall's horror, she suddenly found that the Soul had somehow managed to locate the life - the familiar life, his life! - And had drawn it close.
'Excuse me! Excuse me!' She shouted wildly, and pulled the life back away from the Soul. 'Sorry,' She went on, sounding not a bit of it, 'These things aren't to be touched by anyone but the Management. Company policy,' She added belatedly.
'Oh, yes, of course,' said the Soul quickly, 'I quite understand. Only, I thought that well, if the Soul who reserved it hasn't turned up, well then, I might as well have it ... ?'
Christall took the life quickly, and hid it behind her. She decided abruptly that this had gone on long enough. Why should she, the special one, the Gatekeeper, the Big Deal, why should she be made to feel wretched by a mere Poor Soul? It was ridiculous! No, she must end this now.
< 9 >
'I quite understand your concern, Sir,' She began with polite firmness, 'But it's out of my hands, see? We operate a strict no-returns policy, I'm afraid. Myself, well, I'd love to let you have this life, but it's not up to me, is it? No, so if you'd like to go back to the life you left down there, then I'm sure you can bring up the matter with the appropriate authorities when you get to the Other Side ...'
Christall trailed off.
She realised suddenly that the Soul had taken on a strange, almost glazed over appearance. It was not hearing what she was saying anymore. In fact, she was not even sure it was looking at her at all. It was almost as if it was looking through her ...
Christall shifted a moment too late.
As has been said, there was no space here.
Nevertheless, there were different places that one could decide not to occupy space in, and the Soul had abruptly decided that it wanted to occupy the same non-space as Christall.
The impact hurt quite a lot for something that had absolutely no mass.
As they fell together, Christall turned. She was aware of the life she had been hiding behind her. It was very near, and Christall had time to think that it seemed much larger and more real than it had ever seemed to her before.
Then they hit it.
For a moment they formed a frozen tableau. Christall, the familiar life, and the Poor Soul all merged together in the diaphanous, hallucinatory way of things caught in the interstitial spaces either side of reality.
Then they all vanished into an infinitely thin sliver of void which bubbled away silently into the ether.