Fated Souls

by LJ Swallow

  “Come on, before we lose them.” Sarah stands, glancing between their retreating figures and me.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea. Let’s wait.”

  “No! We’ve waited here long enough. Do you want Daniel to haul you back, a failure with no souls?”

  I scrunch my nose. There’s no option to stay past a few hours. This is supposed to be a quick “kill and retrieve.”

  “Ava! Come on!” She pauses. “Or I’ll follow them alone.”

  Spilt second decisions never end well. But despite my instinct screaming at me not to walk into a dodgy situation, I stand and follow Sarah.

  10

  Walking through the human world, I fight the distraction every step of the way. The people, the buildings—even the way the streets are littered with rubbish. The odours mingle and confuse my senses. Keeping up with the demon guys is tricky, but luckily we don’t need to follow for long.

  We reach another side street with a doorway. The two men push past a queue of people, their numbers winding around the corner. An illuminated sign above the brick building reads The Snake Pit, and I hope the name isn’t literal. Light and noise flood from the entrance. Two men the same size and build as the demons stand in guard of the entry. We slip past distracted humans and follow the men into the building.

  The darkness and noise immediately dulls my hunter senses. “What the hell is this place?” I yell over the music.

  Strobe lights pick out faces and bodies gyrating to the music; this is nothing like any music I’ve heard before. Thumping beats and screeching guitars—shouting voices. In here, the ability to sense a demon is deadened by the confusion of the sights and sounds. There’s no way we’ll find them now.

  “What do we do?” shouts Sarah in my ear.

  I hold my hands out palm upwards and shrug at her. All I want to do is get the hell out, my head aches from the noise, and the proximity of humans grosses me out. They’re not demons, but there’s something weird repulsing me, besides my dislike of their freedom. One’s back brushes against me, and I’m relieved I have my jacket on so our skin doesn’t touch.

  We need to stay until we’re sure the demons have left, then at least try to slay them. Who knows how long it’ll take to find any other targets? Until we have souls to return to the Caelestia, we’re stuck, and there’s no way I want to stay around here a minute more than I need.

  Sarah stands with the earlier stupefied look on her face, and it strikes me the demons could’ve deliberately led us here as easy pickings. If they belong to this world, the cacophony around won’t bother them. This is their own hunting ground, and we’ve planted ourselves bang in the centre.

  I grab Sarah’s hand, perspiring as the awareness of danger grows. We need to leave. Now. Someone else crashes into us, and the sheer number of bodies is suffocating, growing by the minute. A group push through, knocking us towards a dark corner.

  “Go!” I yell in Sarah’s ear, shoving her towards a door at the venue’s rear.

  She stumbles into the crowd, and in the time between my glancing at the door and looking back to her, she’s disappeared into the sea of black clothed humans.

  Fuck.

  Fear bolts through my veins. Where is she? I push my way through the crowds, hand on the dagger sheathed against my hip. Every moment I spend in this hell of a place, the dizzier and more confused I become. A strobing light picks out a blond head. One of the demons? I shove an unimpressed girl with a pierced face out of the way and move to the spot the blond man occupies.

  Gone.

  There’s a doorway nearby, and I yank at the handle. The door opens, and I slip through. A concrete-floored narrow corridor runs towards some steps, leading up to another door where a single bulb hangs above, and the walls are painted stark black. The space is cool after the stifling atmosphere of the other room, and I heave in a breath. My senses return to normal, and I strain to hear or feel any other presence around. Nothing.

  Shit.

  I pad along the floor and up the small set of concrete stairs. Another door; this time with a metal bar I push down. The heavy door swings open into a narrow space between this building and the one opposite. I edge out, back against the wall and peer into the shadows. If Sarah’s lost, I need to leave. ASAP. And do what? Where do I go? The stars above mock me; stupid Fated girl who thought she could escape them now paralysed in an unfamiliar world.

  Movement in the dark catches my eye, and I hold my breath. Someone lurks nearby. Has he seen me? I’m well-blended into my own shadows and the figure remains still. The door crashes open, and two figures stagger out.

  Sarah and one of the demons we followed. My anxiety morphs into panic as I watch the tall guy drag her across the alleyway. Sarah shouts out, and he hits her around the face. She trips to the floor, and the demon picks her up, slamming her against the wall. I cringe at the crack of her body, feet frozen in place. I should help. But the other figure? I could suffer the same fate.

  “Where’s the other one?” he yells.

  “Inside somewhere, I think.” Sarah’s voice is broken, and I’m sickened the rest of her will be as he throws her across the ground.

  “You soul hunters hardly ever survive. Why do they bother sending you?”

  Sarah doesn’t reply. Or move.

  What is it holding me to the shadows? This girl I went to school with, hated, is a victim of this as much as I am. This world isn’t the same as our childhood anymore. We’re not kids. Will self-preservation stop me helping her? The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach is a reminder that who I am is who I’ll always be, however hard I try to bury her. Soul hunter Ava may have a “fuck you” attitude to match the one I’ve always had, but I could never stand back and save myself as someone dies in front of me.

  I creep up behind the demon, jump onto his back, and lock my legs around his waist.

  “Get the fuck off her!” I shout, holding the dagger against his throat. I hang on and hope to hell no other demons are around.

  “The other one! Fantastic! Saves me a job.” He grabs my legs, easily disentangling them, and bucks me off. I manage to slash at him with the dagger, and he catches the blade as he knocks me to the floor.

  The demon touches his neck, then stares at the blood on his hands. “You soul hunter bitch!”

  Grabbing my hair, he drags me to my feet. In his eyes, my death is reflected. Cool hands grip my throat as he squeezes; I grapple with his fingers but have no strength. I stare back at him, willing the tears forming not to fall. His face fades, and lights dance in front of my eyes as I blacken towards a humiliating death in a back alley of the human world.

  Someone drags me over their shoulder, and in my semi-conscious and upside-down state, I watch the tarmac pass. The surrounding air still smells of the human world—I didn’t die and go to hell. Yet. Strong arms grip my legs, but I don’t have the strength to retaliate. The jolting of my assailant’s movements rattles my aching head, and I close my eyes, drifting back into the black. As I do, it suddenly strikes me the person carrying me doesn’t smell of demon. He has a scent I recognise.

  I don’t know how long I black out for, but I’m roused back to consciousness by a furious male voice I don’t recognise.

  “What the fuck are you doing bringing her here?”

  I open an eye. The someone carrying me has dropped me in the corner of a room. The floor is uneven, and dirt smudges my hands as I push to sit. Metal beams criss-cross the ceiling of the vast room, and the streetlight from the dirty window is the sole illumination. Two men stand at the opposite end of the room. Men or demons? Their figures are half-hidden by the shadows. I remain quiet.

  “What else could I do? Leave her to die?”

  Hope surges at the sound of Daniel’s voice.

  “But you happily left the other?”

  “She was already dead.”

  The words push bile upwards, a shocking reality of how death follows me now.

  “The demon? Did it escape?” continues the
angry man.

  “No.”

  “At least that’s one thing.” He pauses. “What happened to its soul?”

  Daniel replies in a low voice.

  “Why is it in the fucking crystal? Break the crystal!”

  “No. I’m giving it to Ava. She needs one to take back.”

  Am I dreaming? In my injured mess, everything is distant, as if reality is out of reach now.

  But reality just changed again.

  “What for? She can’t go back now. And she’s not staying here—she’s a fucking liability. You know that.”

  “She hasn’t seen anything. Knows nothing.”

  “Apart from you bringing her here.”

  “She has no idea where she is.”

  The cough from my injured chest I’ve attempted to hold in bursts out, and Daniel spins around. He strides over, but the other man remains in the shadows. Daniel crouches down and pushes the crystal into my shaking hand. I look blankly at the sphere.

  “What’s happening?” I ask.

  He touches my face. “You have what you came for now.”

  Through the dim, a softness in Daniel’s eyes forces the tears back into mine. “What? The demon…”

  I drag myself to my feet and back away from him, crystal in my hand. I look warily as the other man steps from the shadows. His close-cropped dark hair and sour face mix together in a warning: this guy isn’t someone to mess with. He rubs his head with a large palm, eyebrows pulled tightly together.

  “Who’s he? A demon?” I ask Daniel

  The man snorts. “Do you think you’d be alive, sweetheart, if I was a fucking demon?”

  Judging by the conversation he just had with Daniel, he’d prefer if I weren’t alive. I take in more of my surroundings. Old machinery and a strong smell of urine add to the feeling this derelict building isn’t a great place to hang out. I’m drawn to the large picture painted on the wall behind: a white circle with lines crossed through and like no symbol I’ve seen before. Where the hell am I?

  I want to curl up in a ball and close my eyes, so the nightmare will be gone when I wake up. My body aches, my head hurts, and someone died. Who am I fooling? I was never more than the scared Fated girl.

  “I can’t do this,” I whisper to Daniel, “I can’t do this….” My voice breaks, and I slump to the ground.

  Daniel squats back down and turns my head to face him. “Yes. Yes you can. You’re good.”

  “I nearly died. Again.”

  “I believe in you.”

  His cheek is streaked with blood, clothes dishevelled, but in his eyes a look of earnestness and determination I wish I shared. Why would he want to believe in me? I’m no different to anyone else.

  “You should’ve left me to die. I’ll never survive once my training finishes.”

  “Listen to me, Ava. You can. Integrate with the humans when Darius sends you for souls. Watch carefully. Plan. And never recklessly pursue them. You know these things. Follow your instincts—you were almost there tonight before Sarah dragged you off the path you chose.” He pauses. “Work alone. It’s safer.”

  The man behind laughs. “Why give her false hope?”

  Daniel twists around to look at the man. “Are you saying our hope is false?”

  “Who knows? Maybe it is.”

  Daniel keeps looking at him, and something unspoken passes between the two men.

  “Oh no, no way. Not going to happen,” says the man in a low voice.

  “Tough shit, Ruben. You’re not the boss of me.”

  The quiet standoff continues joined by my ragged breath.

  Ruben makes an exasperated noise. “Fuck, Daniel!”

  “I won’t be responsible for any more deaths. I’m done.”

  “Fine! Help her return to the Caelestia, but that’s it. Nothing else.”

  When Daniel reaches out a hand to touch my hair, I know this is the end. In his eyes, the sadness I glimpsed last night is amplified. My breath hitches, and he leans his forehead against mine.

  Reuben huffs with displeasure. “And hurry up with your tender goodbyes, we have to leave. Now.”

  Daniel sits back on his heels, sliding his hand along my arm. “Wait here, and someone will come for you.”

  “Where are you going?” I ask in panic.

  “Demons,” remarks the other man, “Daniel’s heading off to kill demons. If he doesn’t return, he’s dead. Tell them—tell Darius.”

  What the fuck is happening here? I sense I won’t see Daniel again because this man, whoever he is, is about to drag Daniel into something. Something that will kill him.

  “What’s happening?” I whisper.

  “One day I hope you find out.” Daniel rubs my face with the back of his hand, and I wince as his gentle touch stings a wound on my cheek.

  No. “You’re leaving me here?”

  “They’ll come for you soon. You have the soul.”

  “What about you?”

  Instead of responding, Daniel leans towards me and places his mouth on mine. This time the kiss is soft. A goodbye kiss. I want more… for him to kiss me harder and hold me. I need Daniel to tell me this nightmare will end, but that will never happen.

  I want Daniel, and he’s leaving.

  Shutting down emotions needs more practice because so far not so good.

  I pull away, tears streaking my face.

  “Hurry the fuck up!” growls Ruben.

  A figure charges through the door behind, throwing himself towards Ruben. Daniel stands in alarm, and I shrink back as two other tall figures barrel into the room. Yellow eyes gleam through the darkness. I saw yellow-eyed demons in Daniel’s pictures on the first day, but the ones I met in the field had human eyes. The demons’ eyes shining through the dark, an animal-like pupil in the centre, belong to a stronger breed.

  I crawl into the corner. Ashamed. Too weak to do anything.

  The tall man shouts Daniel’s name, and Daniel pulls out his dagger, charging towards the first demon. Laughing, the demon strikes out and knocks Daniel to the floor like an insect. I hold back from running to Daniel as he lies still on the floor, and the fear he’s dead rises. Light from the street shines through the entrance, illuminating the three, not two, demons. Dark, shaggy hair falls across their faces, but their features are shadowed. Three of them and three of us—but I’m no match.

  Ruben shouts and swears at one of the demons, who laughs at him but doesn’t approach as he catches sight of an object in Ruben’s hands. I can’t make out what it is, but it’s not his dagger. Daniel remains unmoving on the ground. Why do the other demons hang back? From the corner of my eye, I notice Daniel move. The group of demons focus on Ruben. When Ruben moves the item glints, but the size and shape are hidden. As Daniel edges across the floor towards me, the demons don’t drop their focus on his friend.

  “I’m sorry,” I say hoarsely to Daniel, “I don’t think I can help.”

  “You can’t. You have to hide.” He points to a metal object in the corner, a derelict machine as tall as I am and about two metres across. “Behind there.”

  “Daniel…”

  “Be Ava. Be strong and survive.” He seizes my face and crushes my mouth with a kiss dragging my remaining breath from my aching lungs. “Now hide.”

  I glance back to the demons, who remain transfixed. My brain can’t take any more in one night. Even if I had answers, I couldn’t absorb them. Daniel stands and doesn’t look at me again.

  No goodbye.

  I do as he says and huddle into a corner behind the metal structure. Covering my head with my arms, I wait for somebody to locate me.

  A light flashes across the room and blinds my vision, yanking away the last piece of consciousness I grip onto.

  When I open my eyes again, I’m back in the sterility of the soul hunters’ world. The ceiling of the training institute hangs above me, the bright lights dazzling.

  What happens to me now?

  11

  TWO YEARS LATER

 
; I don’t “do” back alleys. Not if I can help it. The kind of demons who hang around dank alleyways are boring. Stupid. No fun. And, while I’m stuck in this perpetual hell, I’m having fun. Even if it kills me. Besides, why spend the best part of a week stuck amongst humans, waiting for the dumb demons to start tracking me? Instead, I find them and finish my mission quicker. Daniel was right, I’m a soul hunter, and I won’t be hunted. The quicker I find the souls, the sooner I go back with one.

  I’m too good. I realised this fact around the time I became aware I’m the only surviving member of my training group. They wouldn’t recognise me now—I don’t recognise me now. My hair is aqua blue and changes colour with my moods. I’m disguised by eyes hidden behind a wall of black eye make-up. I may as well carry a warning sign: don’t fuck with me.

  But the demons still try. Idiots.

  Like this one. He knows what I am, and I know what he is, but the demon can’t resist. I imagine he thinks his strength is greater or we’re equal. The problem for him is he’s wrong. They’re always wrong. I hang in bars, occasionally I pick them up, or sometimes I wait for the demons to hit on me. Occasionally humans do too—the idea of touching one of them nauseates me as much as when a demon attempts to put his mouth on me. But that’s my jealousy and anger at the human life; pity would be a better emotion, considering their physical weakness and the accompanying ageing. But I have no pity. I hate they have what I want—freedom—and have no appreciation how lucky they are.

  I always sit alone, scouting out those around me. I choose quiet bars because I still hate the noise of their clubs and because they remind me of the day Sarah died and Daniel disappeared. I think Daniel died, no one ever told me. I guess he was as expendable as the rest of us.

  I catch the eye of a demon and turn on my act: silly drunk soul hunter, depressed by her life and looking for solace. Suicidal sex. Then once he’s drunk enough, we leave.