The Borrowed Souls: A Novel

by Paul B. Kohler

  I stole a final glance in the direction of Noah and his daughter. They were still several yards away from where the deadly accident would take place. Satisfied with their position, I dug deep and gave a final drive toward the center of the grazing birds. As I penetrated the outer perimeter of the gaggle, the birds merely parted around me, not flying away as I’d hoped. When my desired outcome didn’t materialize, I stepped up my spectacle. I began to flap my arms wildly, screaming loudly as I continued to barrel through the flock.

  “SQUAWK! SQUAWK! CUH-CAH!” I yelled. One by one, the birds began to take flight. I rushed forward with my lunacy and even began to jump up and down as I flapped away.

  Within minutes most of the flock had flown off, with just a few stragglers hanging around on the far side of the clearing. I stopped my theatrics and dropped to my knees out of pure exhaustion. As I breathed deeply, I noticed Noah and his daughter quietly pass by the point of his uncertain death. A split second later, the city bus cruised by, the driver no wiser to the tragedy he was meant to be part of. Satisfied, I leaned back onto the grass and basked in my triumph. Within moments, I was startled by the wet tongue of the golden retriever. He assailed me with his kindness, and before his owner got curious about the situation, I thought about my park bench and vanished.

  Chapter 12

  Still exhausted from my magnificent performance, I collapsed on my park bench and let out a deep sigh. As I thought about the image of Noah and his daughter walking away from his own escapable death, I smiled widely. Within moments of experiencing the deep satisfaction that only hard work and determination can provide, Hauser appeared next to me. Hauser’s sudden arrivals usually gave me a startle, but not this time. No way. I won—nothing was going to kill this high.

  “So? How’d it go?” Hauser asked.

  “Well, I think I might have a defective box,” I smiled. “When I showed up at the scene of Noah’s impending demise, things didn’t quite play out as they had when I used the rosary.” I looked straight ahead in an attempt to disguise the real truth from Hauser. My only problem: I was not that great at playing poker, and I sucked at bluffing.

  “Jack?” Hauser said sternly.

  I half smiled as I turned slightly in his direction. “Honest to God, Noah is alive,” I said, holding back the rest of the story.

  Hauser sighed deeply and looked away from me. “You know, sport, you’re putting me in a tough position.”

  “How so?” I asked, almost certain I knew the reason.

  “You went off and changed the course of his life. You played God.” Hauser stared at me. “Tell me, Jack, how are we going to handle this?”

  “But, I don’t know—”

  “Cut the crap, Jack. I knew the moment we had our last conversation that you were going to find a way.”

  I had been so happy just moments before, but now I could feel my cheeks reddening with embarrassment. “You can’t tell me that you blame me for this. Noah is a good man. He has a loving family and—”

  “Stop. I already know all that,” Hauser said, holding his hand up to cut me off. After several moments of awkward silence, he continued. “Listen, Jack, I don’t fault you for your reasons. I of all people would never question your moralistic fiber. I am disappointed that you actually followed through with it. And there will be consequences. Trust me, I know firsthand.”

  “Wait, you’ve done this before?”

  Hauser nodded silently.

  “Then what’s the big deal? If you’ve done this, my punishment can’t be too bad. You’re my trainer, after all.”

  “My situation was a long time ago. My chastisement was quite severe at the time. Back then, the Sentinel was a lot different. They pulled me away from soul collection for almost a year, and that year was the hardest of my life.”

  “What made it so hard?” I asked.

  Hauser shrugged. “My discipline is neither here nor there. I do know this: the Sentinel is very set in their ways today, and trust me when I tell you they won’t be too happy to hear about your latest indiscretion.”

  Worry spread through my veins. Hauser was making it sound like I’d lose an arm or leg as penitence for my deed.

  Hauser chuckled. “No, it’s not going to be that bad.”

  “Been reading my thoughts much?”

  Hauser winked.

  We sat on the park bench and watched the random pedestrians walk up and down the sidewalk. Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes turned into hours. Before I realized it, the sun had gone down. Neither of us said a word. My own mind raced through numerous possible consequences for my actions. Hauser, who knows? He might have been thinking about feeding his goldfish for all I knew.

  Hauser finally broke the silence. “It was shortly after my own training. I think it was around 1820, and I . . . was trying to atone for my past sins. The soul that I was sent to collect was that of a young girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen, I don’t remember. Anyway, her father was killed in the war and her mother took any kind of job around the village that she could get so that she could feed her family. Because she was away so much, the little girl, I’ll call her Alice, was in charge of her two younger sisters while their mother worked.” Hauser paused but remained staring forward. “As you might imagine, back then there were fewer lawmen to keep the peace. With fewer police, the crime rate was a lot higher. I had just been given a device very similar to your rosary that allowed me to foresee the moment of death. Unfortunately, I didn’t have twenty-four hours like you do now. I only had about an hour, maybe two.”

  “Why? Why are you telling me this now?” I asked.

  “I’ve not told this to anybody, so take that for what it’s worth. I just wanted you to know that you’re not alone. Shall I continue?”

  I nodded vehemently.

  “When I used the device, I saw Alice and her two sisters being tortured, raped, and then killed. Two men were passing through town and had learned of the three girls being home alone when their mother inadvertently let it slip while working at a local pub.”

  “And you . . .”

  “Yes, I saved all three girls that night. And at the same time I filled two boxes with the bad men.”

  “But how did you do it? I mean, I had to get creative with animal manipulation to save Noah. How did you save the three girls and kill the rapists at the same time?”

  “That, my friend, is information that will never pass these lips. Let me just say that in this afterlife we live in, we have this . . . ability that even to this day, I don’t know the full potential of.”

  I nodded, remembering something that Wilson had said before I took his soul. “Practical magic?” I asked.

  “Yep. Wilson told you?”

  “Yeah, but only briefly. I had asked him about his mind-reading ability and that’s how he explained it.”

  “I’d imagine that you too will be developing that same ability anytime now. Maybe even before you collect your next soul.”

  “But what about my punishment? If you were pulled away for a year back then, what’s going to happen to me now?”

  “Well, I was . . . how can I say this? I was a special case.”

  “In what way?”

  “My previous life was not filled with joys of spring, so to speak. I did some bad things, very bad. And to make up for those atrocities, I tried to save every soul that I could. It wasn’t until those three girls that I finally got caught.”

  “Wow. What did you do? You know, before . . .”

  Hauser’s eyes were damp but the tears didn’t fall. “I’d rather not. Not right now. I’ve already told you more than I’ve told anyone else.”

  I accepted Hauser’s answer and didn’t press. I already felt fortunate that he shared so much with me so soon after taking Wilson’s position.

  “So what do I do now?”

  “Well, have you looked at your box since you freed your mark?”

  “No. I don’t mean that. What about me and the Sentinel? What are you going to tell them?” />
  “Don’t worry about that, kid. I’m supposed to discourage your ability to alter reality. That’s why I was so hard on you earlier. Everybody in our profession knows how much they can push the boundaries. I’ll smooth it over with them and it’ll be like nothing happened.”

  “I’m speechless, Hauser. Thank you.”

  “Don’t mention it, kid. Now, where is your box?”

  I pulled Noah Clayton’s box from my pocket and held it in my hand. At the same time, Hauser pulled a glass vial from his own inside pocket.

  “Go ahead and open it up,” Hauser instructed.

  I did so, curious as to what Hauser was up to. As I turned the open box toward him, he removed the rubber stopper from the end of the vial, and a very faint wisp of smoke floated out and into the box. The box closed and vanished.

  “Don’t I need to cleanse it first?”

  “Nope. That was a clean, virgin soul. Hot off the presses, so to speak.”

  Curious, I asked, “And where exactly did you get a vial of a brand new soul?”

  “Um, where is of no concern. The big guys upstairs know nothing about it, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

  “Mums the word,” I said as a replacement box materialized in my hand.

  “That’s strange,” I said as I turned the box over and over. “This box is like the last one. No name.”

  “Give it a minute. Sometimes they’re a little slow to catch up.”

  Hauser and I sat on the bench, both intently focused on the box.

  After what felt like an eternity, Hauser’s eyes narrowed. He looked into my eyes and uttered two words.

  “Oh, dear.”

  Chapter 1

  Having maneuvered the endlessly stark hallways dozens of times over the past few months, I still couldn’t get use to the stench. A sterile, antiseptic smell hung in the air like an arctic fogbank as I passed through the bleak corridors. Walking along, I could practically feel my energy being sapped from above. I knew it was a figment of my imagination, but I still found it oddly ironic that in place such as this, where life preservation was the standard, the harshness of the overhead lights seemed to counteract that exact intention. I wondered why it was different in other parts of the hospital; color and life were prevalent throughout the decor, but here in the Intensive Care Unit, white was the preferred palette.

  Moving into the central core—the bullpen—I glanced at the personnel behind the counter. Having been a constant shadow in the ICU wing, I felt I knew the entire staff by name. When I saw a new male nurse standing near the coattails of one of the doctors, my interest was piqued. In all the time I’d spent searching for the owner of the soul I was there to collect, I had never once considered that it might actually be a doctor or a nurse, and not a dying patient.

  I walked toward them in hopes of gleaning the new employee’s name. As I stood near, listening to the doctor ramble on about the various patients’ conditions, I looked over the nurse’s uniform for any indication of his name. Unfortunately his ID badge had been flipped over, and I was unable to read the front side.

  Finally, after several minutes of boring medical jargon, the doctor asked if Theo had any questions. After hearing his name, I didn’t stick around a moment longer.

  I walked out of the bullpen and headed directly to room 742. As I approached the opening, I glanced at the medical chart hanging just outside, where the name Alistair Hobbs was printed clearly. I smiled and walked in.

  As I slid the door shut, Hobbs looked up at me from his bed and smiled. “Hey, Jack. What’s the good word?”

  “You know. Same shit, different day. How about you? Hanging in there I see?” I said.

  “Well, I’m as surprised as you are. With the way these doctors and nurses prick and prod me, I feel like a human pincushion,” Hobbs said as he adjusted the oxygen tubes near his nose. “Have any luck?” he asked.

  “Unfortunately, no. I’m just starting my rounds for the day, but . . .”

  “Hey, Jack. Keep your head up. I’m sure Calvin will present himself when it’s time.”

  “I hope so, Alistair,” I said, nodding. “Speaking of, did you by chance get any information out of the staff?”

  Hobbs rolled his head from side to side as it rested on the pillow. “Sorry, pal, but as soon as I brought up another patient, they shut me down pretty quick, telling me that information was only released to family members. I couldn’t even get anybody to confirm or deny that there was anyone named Calvin even admitted in the hospital.” Hobbs closed his eyes and took in several deep breaths.

  “You doing okay, Alistair?” I asked. “You look a little out of sorts.”

  “Hey, you know. One minute I feel like I’m doing better, then the next I feel like I might not make it to my afternoon sponge bath.”

  “And still no word? Your collector hasn’t shown up yet?”

  “Nope. The only ghost I can see or hear is you, my friend.” Hobbs winked and smiled.

  “Well, I’m sure that you’re not in any rush to move on into the afterlife, but if I’m seeing you and talking to you, I’m sure your collector is on their way.”

  I felt awkward talking to Hobbs about his imminent death, but when I first met him two weeks ago, he had fully accepted the fact that he was going to die. In fact, he practically welcomed it with open arms.

  “Is there a number you can call or something? You know, and request some assistance for me?” Hobbs asked with a grin.

  “Ha ha. If there is one, my trainer didn’t give it to me. But as soon as I see him, I’ll ask him about the hold up. I’ll make sure he comes to visit you right off. Deal?”

  “Thank you, sir. It’s not like I’m dying to get out of this world,” he said with another wink and a chuckle, “but if it’ll help with this pain, I’m ready to go now.”

  “Sounds good, Alistair. I’ll keep you in the loop. But for now, I’m gonna go take a walk through the emergency room. With any luck, maybe my Calvin is just checking in. If I don’t talk to you before, be sure to have a happy afterlife.”

  Hobbs nodded his head, then closed his eyes to sleep.

  Stepping back into the nurse’s galley, I decided to run by the patient board to see if any new names had been added. After a brief check, it appeared that someone had rewritten all the patients’ names, eliminating all the first names from the list. All that was left was their first initial. I scanned through the names, arriving at a new patient’s name that began with the letter C. A quick glance to the side and I found that he, or she, was in room 715. Without hesitation, I was off to look for Calvin.

  “Please let it be,” I said. I needed to move on from this soul and get out of this hospital.

  As I sped through the stark hallways, I glanced at the room numbers as they decreased in count. Even numbers on the left, odd numbers on the right. Room 721. Room 719. Room 717. Room 715. I stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath before lifting the medical chart off the wall. It was clearly a new patient, as nobody had written in the patient’s name on the board above the hook yet. As I flipped the aluminum cover open, my eyes darted to the top of the chart to the patient’s name. Charles Grafton.

  “Crap.”

  I slammed the medical chart shut and slapped it against the wall, barely catching the hook at the top. I felt like punching a wall.

  “Dammit, Hauser. Why is this so difficult?” I said as I blasted out of the ICU wing and headed for the stairway.

  “Hey, compadre. If you ask a question of me, you might want to stick around for the answer,” Hauser called out from behind me.

  Chapter 2

  Hauser’s voice halted my stride. I spun around and found him wearing a doctor’s coat and a stethoscope around his neck. He was leaning casually against the side wall. I stared at him incredulously.

  “What?” Hauser asked. “Didn’t you just call out for me?”

  Exasperated, I walked up to him, prepared to give him a piece of my mind. But before I could say a word, he threw h
is hands up in the air.

  “Slow down there, Jack. You’re the one that wanted to do this collection alone. I only gave you the space that you asked for. Am I wrong?” Hauser said.

  “I . . . uh . . . yeah. I guess I did. I just thought that after—”

  “Don’t sweat it, kid. I get it. It’s easy to feel the way you did after the successful sidestep of collecting your last soul. I guess I’d be feeling pretty invincible myself. But I don’t think I would’ve handled it quite the same way as you.”

  “What? The same way as me? All I did was ask for some leeway on this new soul box.”

  “Yeah, I know. But it was the way that you asked for it. From the moment you got your new box, you started strutting around like you were omnipotent or something. I figured a little humble pie would do you well.”

  I could feel my heart beat faster but suppressed the building anger quickly. As much as I hated to admit it, Hauser was right.

  “Well? Are you here to help or are you going to just continue to criticize me?”

  “That’s up to you, Jack. Do you want to carry on with training, like an adult, or do you want to hold on to your attitude?”

  Goddammit, can’t he just let it go?

  “Careful, Jack. Your thoughts are louder than you might imagine,” Hauser said.

  Shit. “I mean, yes. I would like your help, and I will continue my training like an adult,” I said, fighting back my temper.

  “Great. Why don’t you tell me what you’ve done up till now.”

  “Well, not a lot. I have the soul box with only a first name on it. It etched itself on the box shortly before you took off. But you already knew that. Unfortunately, the last name has yet to engrave itself, and for the life of me, I cannot find a soul bearer with the first name of Calvin in the entire hospital. Are you sure we’re in the right place?”