Soft Soul

It had taken them a week to find Josh in the mines. Screaming, scared, a shattered version of the person he used to be. They’d locked him up in a mental hospital, his frail body bound in a straitjacket and thrown in a padded cell. The Washington’s, desperate not to give up hope on their only remaining child, had tried everything. They had called in the best doctors they could find, tried all the specialists from modern hypnosis to elders from the native Cree tribe but only when an exorcist was brought in did they finally see results. The spirit of the wendigo was, as the exorcist explained, nothing more than a powerful demonic possession which slowly overtook the body until the human aspect became a memory and a flesh prison in which this demon resided in.

It took three days for the exorcism to work, and another month before Josh was released from the hospital. His parents had arranged a strict diet and a series of long lasting dental appointments to help their son feel like he was in his own body once more. He had twice weekly trips to a therapist and a cornucopia of daily medication to keep not only his body healthy but his mind too.

After a three weeks of being at home again, Josh decided he wanted to try and seek his friends’ forgiveness. It had been all over the news; the terror of Blackwood Mountain. Jess was the star of it all, the poor girl had been through absolute hell and her heroic story of survival was one that the world couldn’t get enough of. Her and Mike were the American dream couple, beautiful, strong, endearing, everything the country wanted. Josh, on the other hand, was a tale of horror. When they pulled him out of those mines the media couldn’t get enough. His demonic face was everywhere and the tale of the Wendigo was no longer a myth, but fact. It was good for his father though, as the director of numerous horror movies, the money came rolling in and of course he was hired to turn their nightmare into a cinema masterpiece.

Tensions were high in the Washington household. His mother was at a loss, staying out with her friends and business associates whilst his father was always on a movie set using his last child to make enough money to keep a country afloat. So after those three weeks of loneliness he sent a reluctant email to his friends.

Emily and Matt blocked him instantly, like all of the couple they had grown closer from the terrors of that winter night and tucked themselves away from the watching eyes of the world. They had gone to Ivy League universities, Emily studying law and Matt sport science whilst training to become a baseball star which had got him the scholarship he needed to be at university with his other half.

Jess and Mike were stars now. They had moved to California and there were talks of a reality TV show, or a talk show, or a fashion line, or something that modern stars did. The email went into a long line of fan emails, ignore, and unwanted, like the friendship Josh was desperate to repair.

Chris and Ashley sent a joint email, apparently as a couple they shared everything now. They wanted to see their friend again, they really did, despite all the terrible things he’d done to them, but they were in the process of moving in together. They were living life to make up for all the time they had lost and after the horrors they had endured they wanted to make their life happen before it could be taken away. It had been three months since they had been saved on that helicopter from the mountains and they were in a more stable relationship than those married for fifty years.
When Josh was beginning to think all hope was lost he received a reply from the girl who through all of it wanted to be his friend. Sam was the only one besides Josh who had been mentally damaged by the events. She told him how she’d been in and out of hospital, on medication, but she was a tough one, she was a survivor and she would be over at his house the next day.



The doorbell rang through the empty mansion where Josh stayed alone. He’d been sat in the foyer waiting for her since he’d woke early in the morning to take his daily medication.

“Hey,” Sam said with a soft smile as Josh opened the door for her. “How are you feeling?”

Josh couldn’t reply, his eyes filled with tears as he looked at the one person he could rely on. This was an honest smile, not one he had seen for months from his parents and doctors, she was happy to see him. And as he pulled her into a tight hug he realised how much he needed her.

Sam hugged him tight, her face resting against his neck as she did. They stood like that while the world carried on around them, gently crying as they released all their lost time into the embrace.

“I’ve missed you.” Sam chocked out as she slowly pulled out of the hug.

“I missed you too.” Josh replied, his hand reaching out to touch her but at the last second he changed his mind and brought it back down to his side. One of the many issues the therapist had abruptly told him was that he needs to respect people’s boundaries and realise that he needed to give people time to adjust to him.

“Can I come in?” Sam asked, a slight laugh in her voice as she indicated that they were still stood in the doorway of Josh’s home.

He smiled in response, moving aside to let her in and shutting the door behind them. He didn’t know what to say or what to do. He stood awkwardly looking towards the polished wooden floor.

Sam noticed his reluctance and reached out, taking his hand in hers and walking towards the staircase towards Josh’s room. She was trying to keep it how it used to be. They’d sit in his room for hours enjoying the company and sometimes not even talking. The presence of each other kept them calm and Josh had truly forgotten how much he missed her just being in the same room as him.

She threw herself down on Josh’s large bed as they reached his room, letting out a loud sigh.

“I forgot how comfy an expensive bed is. Hospital cots aren’t exactly the nicest.” Sam reminisced, tapping the space next to her as an invitation for Josh to join her.

He lay down on his side, looking at her as she wrinkled the nose at the memory.

“Why were you in there for so long?” Josh asked, the walls falling away between the old friends.

Sam shut her eyes as she began to talk. “It was…complicated, I guess. Post-traumatic stress on top of all the burns and fractures I had. I didn’t take well to being trapped…”

Her voice went to a whisper as she reached the end of her sentence and she turned to face Josh. She rolled up her sleeve and held her frail, pale arm towards Josh. The feelings of being isolated rushed back towards him as he looked at the red, barely healed scars traversing her skin. He remembered feeling like this. That nothing else mattered, that everything was his fault, that he didn’t deserve to be alive anymore; but he had been bound up in a padded room and the feelings eventually subsided, Sam had not had the same fate. She had been wallowing in her terror, taking the blade to her arm to try and make her forget what had happened.

Josh traced his fingers over the rough skin, eventually closing his hand around hers and bringing her arm up to his mouth and he gently kissed the scars.

“You don’t need to do this.” He whispered in between the kisses on her skin. “You did nothing wrong, and I know you were scared and hurt and felt useless, but believe me you have purpose and you never need to do this again.”

There was silence for a moment and Josh was worried he had done something wrong. He felt the guilt eat him up as Sam pulled her arm away from him, and he hated himself for hurting her yet again.

But then he felt her lips on his. Delicate, testing the water, looking for some response that this was the right thing to do.

And as all the pressure kept in his mind drifted away Josh realised that this was definitely the right thing to do.

His hand went to her waist, pulling her closer to him as they softly kissed. Her hand went to the back of his neck, holding him in the kiss he didn’t want to ever end.

As their lips parted he kept his hand wrapped on round her slender waist and gently rested his forehead against hers. They stared at each other, waiting for the silence to be broken but at the same time completely at ease with the quiet.

“I…” Josh stuttered, earning a knowing smile from Sam.

“You too” She replied, knowing exactly what he had wanted to say.

…I love you.