Forfeit Souls (The Ennead Book 1)

by Lila Huff

  “I’m sorry,” Demetrius said with his head bowed slightly. “I would have told you sooner if I could have. I wanted to tell you from the onset, when you were still human.”

  “Thank you,” I said quietly back to him.

  “I’m sorry,” he repeated, more quietly this time. When I didn’t say anything further, he looked up to me again. “How are we going to better the world with our existence today?”

  I grimaced slightly as I looked at him sideways, “I’m hoping you’ll allow me one day to be selfish.” He was confused by my request. “I was hoping that I could go see my parents. Not so that they could see me, just to go make sure that they’re okay.”

  He nodded his head slowly and I went before he had a chance to change his mind. I smiled at him as I left, and just before my surroundings completely dissolved. I saw his expression become slightly pained. When my surroundings settled, I found myself standing in a graveyard.

  It was pouring down rain, which wasn’t surprising given the nature of my home state’s costal climate. I looked up and the rain stopped hitting me. I put up a small bubble that deflected the rain like and invisible umbrella. I looked down at my surroundings. Directly in front of me was my marker. I knew this most certainly as I saw my own name engraved into the polished black stone.

  Joellen E. Ellerbe

  April 9th, 1987 – June 13th, 2009

  Beloved Daughter and Friend

  “It’s very tasteful,” Demetrius said from behind me. “A bit contemporary for me, but then again, I am over four-hundred years old.” He laughed and as I turned to him, he stepped around me and picked up a bundle of red roses wrapped in paper at the base of the stone, it was very elegant in its simplicity, and he put them in the hole next to the marker. It seemed to be there for just such a purpose.

  “I hate cut flowers,” I said quietly. “I just don’t see a point in killing something so beautiful for the temporary decoration of someone or something else.”

  “It’s a symbol,” he smiled pensively.

  “I know that….” I had to stop. I had been here just months before I had left for England, to tend my father’s grave, but there were more additions to the family plot than just my own.

  I looked at the names on the tombstones three times before I felt the sorrow and rage begin to build within me and I felt the tear that rolled down my face as I allowed myself to be blown away by the violent twisting of the gale around me.

  The burnt husk of the building that rose around me was sickening. I felt my stomach twisting and I wondered if I could still vomit. I looked at the walls that had once held the dark blue wallpaper that my mother loved so much. The floor was pocked with holes that showed the desecrated carcass of the first floor of what had once been my home. Acrid tears fell freely from my eyes as I kneeled down to pick up the white teddy bear that lay dejectedly on the floor. One of its ears and its tail were seared, and there was a hole ringed by the black mark of an open flame on its back.

  The entire room was a blackened, charred mess. I clutched the bear as I walked into the hallway, it wasn’t in much better condition. Black marks flowed up the walls where the flames had climbed up them. Picture frames held glass that looked like an oil slick and the railings on the landing had been rendered to toothpicks.

  I went to my room, it wasn’t as bad as the other parts of the house and I dug into my closet. I found a bag and put the teddy bear in it. Then I grabbed what I could that wasn’t burnt.

  There was movement at the doorway and I quickly sent a burst of air toward it. Demetrius just waved it away with his hand. I looked to the hallway behind him, blackened wood, wallpaper that curled up from where it was burnt. I couldn’t stay here anymore. Grabbing the bag I quickly closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see this anymore.

  I opened my eyes to the vast expanse of snow in front of me. My feet dangled off of the rocky ledge I sat on and I leaned back into the snowdrift that I was nearly encased in. It was such a stark contrast from the burnt out husk of my childhood home.

  I felt the slight shift in the wind and knew that Demetrius had found me again.

  “Did you know?” I asked. My tone was as cold as the snow we sat in.

  “I didn’t,” he said with no hint of a lie. “I was worried about what we might find, but I didn’t think that the Asakku would have known where to find your family. The worst I had expected was that your mother would be upset and that her being distraught would upset you.” I opened my eyes to look at him with a knit brow. “I swear,” he swore.

  “I believe you.” I meant it, but it came out sounding less sure than I was.

  He looked over his knees to where the forest picked up again thirty feet below, the trees that spread out before us were covered in a blanket of white powder. “Where are we, by the way?” He asked glancing at me sideways.

  “We,” I smiled, as I remembered where we were, “are at my favorite place in the United States.”

  He gave me an odd look. “This wins when pitted against Hawaii?”

  “Yep.” I just stared out into the air in front of us, trying to cry.

  “Ok, so where exactly is your favorite place in the US?” he prodded when he realized I would say no more.

  “You, my dear Metri, are sitting on the Mogollon Rim.” I smiled at its name. I missed this place.

  “And the Mogollon Rim is where?”

  “We’re about a half an hour north east of Payson, Arizona.” I said matter-of-factly. “I’ve never been here when there was this much snow before, they don’t plow the forest roads out this way, so it’s impossible to get to unless you go on foot… well, for a mortal.”

  “I didn’t think you liked the snow.” He began making indents in the bank with his fingers.

  “I didn’t. But when you’re dead, and the cold doesn’t bother you anymore. Things change.” I scooped up a large pile of snow and threw it in the air, suspending it there and making the individual flakes spin before allowing them to fall.

  “I am sorry about your family,” Demetrius said quietly from beside me.

  I shook my head, “I’m just happy to know that they’re able to find some peace in their death. I envy them that.”

  “Let’s go home,” Demetrius said, holding my hand and taking hold of the duffel’s straps.

  I watched as he dissolved, but I didn’t think about going with him, I watched as his arm started to billow away and then my hand went with it. Soon the white that had surrounded me was gone and I was back in the dark paneled room. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “Now you do,” he said with a smile and tossed me the bag.

  I took it to the closet where I put the jeans in the bottom drawer of the dresser, hiding them under a folded up pair of flannel pajamas, an odd piece of attire for someone who didn’t need to sleep. I pulled the large, leather bound photo album – the brittle pages warped from water damage - out of the bag next and placed it gingerly on top of the dresser – I wasn’t strong enough to look through it yet – and I placed the bear on top of the album.

  After I put away the few remaining articles of clothing I had liberated from my mortal closet, I dropped the bag on the floor next to the dresser so that it was hidden from view of anyone just peaking in, and returned to the room.

  Demetrius was sitting at the desk, scratching away at a piece of paper, when I returned. He looked up for a brief moment to smile before returning to the page beneath his pen.

  “What are you writing?” I asked, as I sat in the chair across the desk from him.

  He looked up again briefly. “I’m writing to Lilith to inform her of what happened to your family. She’ll need to know.”

  “She’s not here?” I asked, looking toward the door, though I knew that I would not be able to determine anything by it.

  “No. She and Father had to leave for a short time. They will be back tomorrow evening.” He spoke so calmly. I had to laugh.

  “And you need to send them this message so urgently?”
I smiled when he looked up at me. “It can’t wait until they return tomorrow.”

  “The letter is why they’ll be returning tomorrow evening. If I don’t send it, I have no idea when they would return.” He held the letter into the air and I watched it dissolve in the same way that we did.

  “That’s neat,” I said with a smile.

  “And useful.” he agreed.

  I looked at the clock. It had been the night of the previous day in the states, but it was still early morning here. “What else should we do with our unlimited existence?”

  “We could play a game,” he suggested. “It’s one of the ways we stave off our boredom.”

  “A game?” I thought back to Nate and Christi’s puzzle. “And what game do you suggest we play?”

  “Checkers, chess…”

  “I’m horrible at chess,” I interrupted. “But I guess there’s no time like the present to get better.”

  “No, ‘no time’ is not something that is an issue for us.” He winked at me. “I’ll get Lizzie. She’s the Anatoly Karpov of our clan.”

  “Is he some famous chess player?” I was guessing again.

  He just smiled. “A world champion.”

  “Let’s put the chess learning on hold, like you said we have all of the time in the world.” I said. I really wasn’t ready to be that embarrassed in front of the rest of the “family” quite yet.

  “Good.” He smiled widely, “I have other plans.”

  “Let’s go,” Demetrius said as he grabbed my hand and lead me down the hall.

  As we walked, the walls began to dissolve and we walked into a bright patch of forest, the snow at our feet seemed out of place. As I walked through the fir trees that towered over my head, their branches creaking from the heavy burden of the snow on their boughs, I felt slightly more at home. I felt oddly warm as I walked through the forest.

  The sun glittered across the snow and I saw a deer bounding away, leaving thin tracks in the deep snow. I noticed that I wasn’t knee deep in the snow as I ought to have been, and Demetrius must have noticed my confusion as well.

  “One of the perks of being a hybrid,” he said with a smile. “We can choose our dominant element.”

  “So if I were to think like an Asakku?” As I said it I thought of the fire element and found myself knee deep in melting snow, the patch of grass around me completely dry. “But because I think like a Lilitu…” The Air around me swelled up and I found my feet at the same level as the snow again, waking forward as though there were a thin barrier between the cold snowpack and myself.

  I thought for a moment, about controlling water and I began to feel very fluid. I looked around me and realized that I had once again sank, but the snow did not feel like snow to me anymore. It was as though the snow was an illusion and I walked right through it. Thinking like an Utukku, and traveling with their traits was a little less stealthy than the Naidu’s. It was as though I was a me-sized boulder and the path I cleft through the snow left a lot to be desired if I was trying to travel incognito.

  “That is very interesting and useful,” I said quietly, and idea forming in my mind. “But what are we doing here?”

  “I thought I’d give you a chance to practice without interference.” As he said it he began to fade away. The last of his words was spoken by the wind.

  Without interference… I could deal with that.

  I looked at the tree in front of me. It was small and scraggly. I doubted that it would make it through to the end of winter, so I did not feel too bad when I visualized it a blaze and it subsequently burst into flames. The bark of the tree was already beginning to turn black. My fire was somewhat more potent than normal fire. I slowly moved the fire up the tree. I positioned it in the crux of a branch and held it there, allowing it to burn from the one small branch while the rest of the tree smoked and steamed in the cold air. I formed a large ball of snow in my hand and held it up, letting it float toward the tree, I let it rest just above the fire. The flames licked upwards and caressed the snow that melted as though it was suspended in a glass bowl above the burning branches.

  When it had completely melted, I let it go and watched the water sizzle on the open flame and nearly burnt-out branches. The forest was quiet now; the crackling of the branch was gone. The remaining pop of sap bubbles that continued to burst was the only sound in the clean white of my snowy surroundings.

  I knew that I had control over the air, fire and water portions of my abilities, but the earth qualities were not something I had yet tested with any real mettle.

  I turned back to the tree, its blackened bark standing out clearly against the green and white of its December backdrop. It looked sad in its desolation and I felt sadder still for leaving it in such a state. It was a proud tree, trying to hold on until the very end, even when annoying spirits like me tampered with it.

  “You deserve to be set apart,” I said quietly to the tree. I turned my hand over so that it was flat with the palm facing up, “let’s put you on a pedestal.” I raised my hand up and the tree, along with the ground – in a circle twelve feet in diameter – around it, lurched seven feet heaven ward, creating a pedestal like plateau in the midst of the forest.

  “Much better,” I said quietly. I didn’t feel like I needed anymore practice, so I turned from the newly uplifted tree and walked into the forest.

  Two steps later I stood in front of my parents’ and younger brother’s graves. It was raining again, but I didn’t care if I was soaked to the bone this time. I sank to the ground at the base of their stones.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said quietly. “If I hadn’t gone into that coma-like state I could have protected you.”

  I looked at the four head stones. They had died just two days before I woke up from my coma-like state. I didn’t move for close to an hour. The rain still fell and I became vaguely aware of another presence in the cemetery, but I didn’t look up to see who it was.

  “Are you alright dear?” a high pitched woman’s voice asked from behind me.

  She went to place her hand on my shoulder and I let it pass through me. The woman ran off screaming toward her car.

  “That wasn’t the smartest thing to do, you know,” Demetrius whispered in my ear as he picked me up and turned me around. “I’m going to take you somewhere to help you cheer up.”

  He took my hand and I watched as it dissolved with him and then I felt the disassembly of my body as it flew forth to wherever Demetrius was taking me.

  China had not been the place that I had expected him to take me back to. It was midnight. I’m not sure how I was so certain of the time difference, but the pitch black in front of me assured me that I was at least close to being right.

  I looked in either direction and saw a dark line winding its way through the snow off toward the horizon, like a dark stone snake. It was the same structure I was standing on, the Great Wall. I looked down to the slightly uneven stones beneath me that were covered in snow and shook my head. “I highly doubt that we’re supposed to be here.”

  “Who’s going to stop us?” he said with a smile as he picked up a handful of snow and threw it at a snowy owl that was sitting on the ledge off to his right. “Rules and laws of mortals are made for mortals,” he said as the now wet owl flew away with a short screech.

  “But if we wish to live among them, we should follow their rules and obey their laws,” I whispered back to him. I had no idea how close we were to a guard shack or anything of the like.

  “No one will hear us,” he laughed louder than I felt prudent. “This is a part of the wall that’s not open to the public.”

  “All the more reason for us to not be here,” I sighed.

  He laughed, “You know all of the things accredited to the Asakku. You might as well know that there are a few things that we’re credited with too.”

  “What’s that? Hurricanes?” I asked sarcastically?

  “Ghosts,” he said calmly, and then he allowed himself to go transparent.
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br />   It was easy to see, doubtless that was what the woman in the cemetery thought I had been when I didn’t allow her to touch me. Right now, Demetrius looked like most descriptions of a ghost that I had seen. How ironic that people would think we were ghosts. “I could understand that misconception,” I agreed as he regained his solidity. “But just because you can break the rules doesn’t mean that you should.”

  “You should try breaking the rules,” he jumped up and stood on the ledge. “I think you’d enjoy it, besides, it’s not like they apply to you anymore.”

  “If they don’t apply, then I can’t possibly break them.”

  “I guess that’s true,” he took the hand that I was holding up to shade my eyes from the light of the moon above his head – it shone like the sun to me – and effortlessly pulled me up onto the wall with him. “So why are you still pretending that they do?”

  I looked over the ledge that I stood on; the ground was so far below me. I smiled as a thought came to me and I turned around to look away from the edge. “Alright. They don’t apply.” I said to him and allowed myself to fall backwards.

  I felt the gentle rush of the breeze as the cool night air passed me, and the springs of the mattress as I landed on the bed, giggling.

  “You’re not that funny,” Metri said as he appeared in the chair at his desk.

  “Oh please, I wasn’t trying to be funny,” I said, pretending to be exasperated. “I was just having a little fun.”

  “Fake suicide is fun?”

  “No. Falling is fun. You said yourself that the rules no longer apply. I wouldn’t have died if I had landed in the snowpack. I wouldn’t have died if I had landed in a pit of spikes.” I looked at him in a mock condescending way. “Suicide is a mortal action. It no longer applies.”