Status: Thanks for reading. Please rec/sub/comment!

Heart and Soul

Chapter Twenty Eight

Colours. So many different colours. My eyes were fixed open in wonder as my fingertips ghosted over the glowing lights. ‘Billions’ that’s what he’d said. There were billions of souls in this room.

Yet it was only one that stood out to me. Mine? Could it be? My Mum’s? Gut wrenching pain ricocheted through me for a second, I grimaced and bent forwards slightly rapidly blinking back tears as I straightened up. In the distance I could hear Nick talking to someone, but I wasn’t interested in them, not at the moment.

I took a few steps forwards, my fingers reaching out for the glowing light that echoed the rainbow. I paused, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. I knew I wasn’t even supposed to be here, not really and what if this wasn’t my soul? What if it is?

Running on adrenaline I darted forwards and grasped the orb of cascading light, my fingers seeping into the colours as I felt a jolt of electricity run through my veins. Throwing my head back without intention I felt my eyes roll backwards as a strange feeling overtook me.

Floating, coasting and weightless. That is how I felt. I no longer felt the worry or unkempt anger that had lingered beneath the surface, instead I felt airy and bathed in a warm light.

I blinked my eyes a few times as my head lolled to the side before righting itself.

I focused on her eyes, shimmering balls of endless hope, she stood there watching me silently. “Hello Annika.” She whispered, her voice like a chorus of hymns.

“Sora?” I asked groggily as I struggled to focus on her, I saw her nod and crinkle her nose slightly as she smiled.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” She whispered, “You brought Nick with you.” She whispered whimsically with affection, as she began to walk towards me, her long hair floating around her like a halo in an imaginary wind. It was bright, where we were, too bright. I couldn’t focus on her for long before I had to look away.

I nodded robotically, as I tried to grasp the thoughts that were floating past me.

“I know where your soul is, Annika. I can guide you to it. You can prevail where I failed, but you will owe me.”

“Owe you?” I asked sleepily as my eyes grew heavy, why was everything so groggy here?

She nodded but didn’t speak. She reached out a small hand and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, capturing my focused attention for a moment. “I need you to release my soul, Annika. I need to go. I’ve been here too long. Nick – he is not my Nick anymore, he has changed. There is no coming back for me – but there is hope for you. I need you to use the spell that the Boss taught you – I know he taught you it. The one to send someone to the next realm. I need you to utter the curse that will set me free.”

I was focused for the moment, intently staring at her eyes. They glittered with unshed tears, in them I could see the torture. The love. She loved Nick, it was undoubtable. But she had loved a different Nick, not the Nick I knew today. She’d loved the Nick with the beating heart, not my shark eyed intruder.

Curse her to the next realm? Is that what she’d said? “If I curse you – you’ll-you’ll end up in hell. You don’t deserve that! – You need to be sent to heaven Sora, I couldn’t. Nick would never forgive me –I-“

“I don’t mean to be pushy Annika, but we haven’t much time. If you want your soul, you’ll do as I say. Curse me, send me away, I have had long enough in here to contemplate my fate and accept my future. I have no body to return to and the world I belonged to has long since gone. Curse me and free me from the prison cell that the Boss created, let me mourn my loss, Annika.” I flinched as she spoke at the anger laced into her words and the pain that flittered across her face. Is this what I would become if Leith killed me? My soul suspended in a frozen eternity?

“At least let me try to send you across to purgatory – then let nature decide where you end up. Please.” I begged, a heavy feeling in my chest reminding me that I didn’t have long, something was calling me back to the real world.

“There isn’t time. To send me to purgatory would involve a magic you don’t have without your soul and would require ingredients – preparation – there is no time. You have to leave now. Curse me and as my final act I will guide you to your soul. Then I need you to get out of here. I need you to save yourself, because I’m going to ask another favour of you. One that you must promise to complete. I need you to save Nick. My Nick; the one with a beating heart. Bring him back, Annika. I beg you. And when you do-give-gi-“Her voice broke on her tears, “give him the life we should have had. Love him like I did, remind him of his humanity and of his strength. Nick is further lost than he thinks, I need you to be there for him, Annika. Promise me. Promise me, you will.”

I nodded wordlessly, unable to deny her request as she leaned forward and held my hands in hers. Tears stained her face and I could see the years of anguish that had built within her, it was time to let Sora rest. “Ok, I’ll do it. I’ll curse you, you show me where my soul is and I swear, if it’s the last thing I do, I will save Nick.”

She nodded in thanks and smiled at me, taking a few steps back. “Thank Annika.” A strong wind hit me and I slowly began to feel the light receding back into darkness, just as it faded I heard her speak.

“Nick will forgive you for cursing me, I promise. He just needs to mourn me first. Oh and Annika? – Your Mother never blamed you – and wants you to know that she will always love y-.” Stunned I fell backwards, crashing into shelves of light as I found myself back in the real world.

Behind me I could see that more people had arrived and were currently fighting Nick to get into this room. I could see Nick’s chest had been cut slightly – the pull that I had felt – was it that?

Turning to Sora’s soul, I risked only a brief glance over my shoulder to ensure I had time to do this. Focusing back on Sora I rallied my power and held my hands over the top of her glowing soul.

I was silent for a moment and shut my eyes tightly, “As a witness to the light, I solemnly denounce this soul and curse it to the darkness it craves, forever and for an eternity.” My eyes glowed a bright white for a brief second as I felt a dark shudder run through me as I focused my energy onto Sora.

My eyes snapped open as I felt the spell complete, I looked down in time to see Sora’s light twist and turn and slowly evaporate into a plume of purple smoke. It hovered for a second in the air, before darting briefly down to my right onto the bottom shelf, before fading into nothing and just like that she was gone. Sora was gone.

Blinking back tears I knelt down and fumbled in the relative darkness of the bottom shelf until my fingertips clutched wood. Pulling a box from the shelf I sat back on my heels for a moment and stared at its intricate construction. Pausing only for a brief second, aware of the raised voices and sounds of a fight just outside the door, I snapped open the box.