Authors: Ker Dukey
I try and fail numerous times to find the soul, but she’s just not anywhere. I can’t take it any longer. I need to go to Simone; I can’t leave her with him. I take a few deep breaths and try to sense her. What the…? I can’t sense her. Am I malfunctioning? I curse myself and try again. Nothing. I try for my father and I sense him straight away. I try for Liam. Again straight away.
Oh God, Simone
.
Maliki’s standing in a library when I appear next to him. He exhales and drops his head.
“Shamar, I hope you bring me good news, because time’s running out. Michael will want answers.”
“I know. I need to ask you if you know why I wouldn’t be able to sense a soul.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Do you mean on Earth?”
“I mean anywhere. Heaven, below, nowhere.”
He ponders my question for a few excruciating minutes. Then he turns to me, a crease forming on his forehead. “Purgatory.” It sounds like a question.
“I’m sorry I don’t…”
He cuts me off. “Purgatory, Shamar. It’s the only place souls can’t be sensed; they don’t belong to Heaven or below.” He answers like he’s just solved his own puzzle.
“Muriel. That’s why no one could find her,” he continues to waffle on to himself more than me.
“So he can get there?” I ask, still a little confused.
“It takes light and darkness and a soul that belongs there; it’s forbidden to go there. And only few know how.”
“Thank you, Maliki. I appreciate everything you’ve done.” I pat his shoulder and leave.
When I appear back in Simone’s living room, I’m confronted by a pacing Liam and a frantic Leah.
“Oh, thank God. Where have you been?” Leah demands of me.
“Sorting a plan. Why? What’s wrong? Where is Maria?”
Leah puts a hand to her mouth and shakes her head. “I told her that Lucas took Simone and she freaked out. She was saying really weird stuff.”
I put my hands on her shoulders and let my calm flow through me. I feel her sigh and relax.
“Like what stuff, Leah?” I urge.
“Like everything's been taken, everything’s a lie, nothing's real, and she doesn’t want to be here. She wants to go with Junior.”
A tear leaks onto her cheek as my father appears and stomps toward me.
“What happened?” he asks. We look to him, puzzled. He raises one sleeve of his black coat; names flitter up his arm like a moving tattoo. Leah gasps and reaches out to touch his arm, but he pins her with a death glare.
“Here.” He taps his wrist and a name stops.
MARIA STEED
“What does that mean?” Leah asks, raising her voice.
He reaches out, taking Leah and Liam’s hands. “Follow,” he tells me before disappearing.
I’m standing on the same bloody bridge that Amanda jumped from; Leah’s shivering and whimpering.
“Why do I feel so cold and sad?” she asks as a stray tear seeps out.
“Because you just travelled with Death,” Liam informs her.
“Why are we here?”
“Maria drove herself off the bridge,” my father states flatly. I look to see a break in the barrier
“Her soul will go to Purgatory because she wasn’t meant to die yet. Gabrielle has fucked with fate and now it’s fucking with my list,” he grumbles. “She won’t be there long, though. She killed herself, She will go to the below.”
“Oh God, Maria. God, Simone. She’s lost so much,” Leah mumbles, clutching herself. She’s right. I need to save her, to bring her home to no mother or brother.
“Shamar, did you locate the box with the soul in?” My father drags me from my mind.
“I couldn’t sense the soul or Simone’s. I think they’re both in Purgatory.”
“Son of a bitch. I should have known.” My father paces.
“We can’t get there. How did he get there?” Liam questions.
“We need a dark soul. The more evil the better. And one of light. I’m assuming an Angel.”
“We can use your mom,” Leah tells me with a point of her finger.
“You mean my mom,” Liam corrects her.
“Yours, his, not the time for nit-picking, Liam,” she huffs at him.
His brow pinches. “I’m sorry. I’m confused.”
I eye Leah and shake my head. Her mouth pops open forming an O shape. My father also shakes his head in frustration.
“What else do we need, Shamar?” my father asks.
“Maliki said a soul that’s meant to go there.”
“I know where we can get the evil one,” Leah offers in a weak voice. We all turn to her in surprise.
“When I was taken, he left me with these horrible people. One was his right hand man. I could tell by the way they spoke to each other that he trusted him, so he has to be evil, right?” she questions but she knows the answer.
“It was at, like a bar, I think. They kept me in a back room but there was music and the smell of stale beer and sweaty men.” She shivers. Liam’s jaw starts ticking as he rubs down her arms. I feel his hostility; he’s pissed off that she was taken. I feel his pain because it’s driving me insane that I can’t sense Simone.
“How would we get there? Do you know where it is?”
“I saw a billboard across the street from out of the window. I remember driving past it before. It’s on route 57. The place looks like warehouses, but it’s not. It’s like a bikers club or something.”
“I know where she means,” my father pipes up.
“Okay, well, we need weapons if we’re going in there. We don’t know what awaits us.”
My father nods in agreement. “I’ll be back with some.” He vanishes.
I feel Leah’s nerves and fright over take her body.
“Leah, come here.”
I open my arms to her and she comes and wraps her arms around my waist. I flood her with calm.
“What did they do to you?” I ask in a whisper. She looks up to me, tears brimming in her eyes. She exhales.
“Not much. I wasn’t there long enough. But it was implied what was going to happen to me before Lucas summoned me and I appeared in Simone’s living room.”
I eye Liam, fisting his hands over Leah’s head.
“You’re so relaxing, Shamar,” she breathes sleepily. I laugh as I let her go and smile down at her.
“I want you two to wait at Simone’s for us.”
“No, I need to show you who I mean.”
“He will be able to sense the darkness, Leah.”
“I agree. I don’t want you going there.”
“Liam, I want to help. I need Simone back,” she whines.
“You have helped and she is going to need you when we bring her home. I can’t risk you getting hurt or killed. Simone’s lost enough people.”
I watch the resolve come to her face.
“Okay,” she murmurs.
My father announces his return behind Leah, causing her to jump. “You ready?” He gestures toward me, holding out a death blade. I take it from him.
“Let’s go.”
“We will just walk back,” Leah huffs and trots off with Liam jogging after her.
“She’s irritating,” my father complains.
“I like her. She’s passionate.” I laugh.
“Follow me.”
I follow him to a row of warehouses; vibrations from a heavy beat resonate from the walls. There are rows and rows of bikes parked out front.
“What’s the plan?” I ask.
He smirks at me and opens the door. Smoke and stale beer engulf me. The music becomes louder. There’s a stairway to the right and a door where the music’s coming from.
“Should we split up?”
“You take the bar, I’ll do the stairs.”
I watch him take the stairs two at a time; he nods down at me once he reaches the top. I turn and push the door open.
There are people everywhere. Rock music sets the mood and laughter blends into it from the rowdy crowd. There are men sitting around tables with scantily clad females keeping their laps warm. The beer flows freely. If it wasn’t for all the dark souls, I wouldn’t find it any different from any other biker bar.
“Hey sugar, you lost?” A bleached blonde wearing a tight leather skirt and only a bra asks, pushing her clearly fake tits into my chest. Laughter cackles from behind her. I watch as another bleached blonde approaches. She’s a little younger but just as fake.
“Put the pretty boy down. You’re Razor’s bitch and he doesn’t look happy.” She nods her head to an angry looking guy with dark hair tied back and a full beard. His soul is dimmed but he’s human.
“I was just being friendly,” the first blonde snaps, then drops her hand to my crotch and gropes me blatantly with a lick across her lips.
This Razor guy storms over to us. He grabs her by the hair and shoves her toward his table and growls in my direction. The second blonde finds it all amusing. I ignore her, walking around her to the bar.
I feel eyes on me. I know I stand out like a priest in a brothel.
“What can I get you, darling?” a brunette in her early thirties asks from behind the bar. She’s wearing jeans and a halter top with a tea towel slung over her right shoulder. She leans on the bar offering a view of her cleavage, which a grey haired overweight man takes full advantage of.
“Whisky on the rocks,” I order.
A few seconds later, it’s being slid across the bar to me. I pick up the glass and tip it to my mouth; the liquid burns my throat as it slides down. The door bangs open and my father fills the frame. He throws a dark soul through it. He’s not human, he’s definitely from below. He smashes into a table, knocking drinks over and sending people backwards. The women start screeching and the men rise to take on my father. I draw my blade and approach.
“This is what we came for.” He drags the dark soul back up and holds a blade to his throat. Some of the crowd exit out the back door; others take on a fighting stance. When they rush him, a brawl breaks out. My father uses his legs to kick and his free arm to swipe the blade at his attackers. I jump right in, wounding those who charge forward, raining punches and kicks with bone-crunching thuds. Some women come at me, fists first, which doesn’t surprise me. They grew up around these men, they can handle a brawl.
I push them away, trying to keep from hurting them. When no more of them are standing, we exit, taking the dark soul with us. I swipe at some blood trickling down my nose and shake out the pain from my knuckles.
“Why didn’t you just leave and call for me? You didn’t have to come into the bar.”
He laughs deep. “Where’s the fun in that? We just spent father son quality time together.”
We return to Simone’s to find a semi-naked Liam and Leah on the couch making out. He stumbles to his feet and hurries to cover her.
“Shit, that was quick,” he muffles. Leah giggles.
“Guess we're even now, huh?” She eyes me. Liam squints his eyes at her, then me.
“What do you mean?”
She shakes her head.
“Nothing babe.”
“Seems everyone has got to see you naked, delicious, sinful Leah,”
the dark soul croons at her, making her visibly shake. I punch him in the face. As I pull back my fist to land another blow, Liam charges him, knocking him to the ground. He straddles him and rains punches to his face.
“He’s lying, Liam,” she screams as Liam’s temper boils over. I pull him off after letting him vent his anger for a few good punches.
“We need him,” I remind him.
“Get dressed and call for your mother.”
“What about a soul that’s not meant to die yet?” Liam asks. “You need all three to get into Purgatory, right?”
The dark soul groans in pain and spits out blood, his glare on Liam as he does.
“How did you find out about Purgatory?” he asks.
“Shut up,” we shout at him in unison.
“What about me?” Leah asks. “I’m not meant to go yet, right?”
She looks to my father. He smirks and pretends to check his arms. Her face pales and I shake my head.
“He’s joking, Leah. He doesn’t need to see the name. Once they appear on his list, he knows automatically.”
She throws something at him out of reflex and scowls. He catches it and cocks an eyebrow.
“Is this an invitation?”
I look to see what he’s holding. “A condom, Leah? Seriously you just threw a condom at Death?” Liam says in disbelief.
She hunches her shoulders and steps forward sheepishly. “Actually I’m going to need that back. It’s our last one.” She smiles and snatches it back from my father.
Liam and I stare at her, open-mouthed.
“You won’t need it if they kill you to get into Purgatory,” the dark soul guffs.
“What do you mean ‘kill her’?” Liam shouts at him.
“You have to sacrifice someone who’s not supposed to die yet, you dumb fuck.”
Leah raises her hand. “I withdraw my offer.”
“I have an idea. You find out from him where the gateway is and I’ll sort out a way around the other thing. Call me when you’re there with Charmeine and ready, okay?” my father suggests and disappears.
“You don’t even know where the gateway is? You really are a bunch of dumb fu...” He’s cut off by a foot to his face, courtesy of Liam.
“Shut the fuck up and tell us where it is.”
He spits more blood at Liam. “If I shut up, how can I say?”
He grins and then blows a kiss at Leah. She walks toward me, grabs my blade, and goes to the dark soul.
“I will cut off those lips, you piece of shit,” she screams at him.
He laughs. “I thought you liked my lips.”
She brings the blade down to his face and cuts down his cheek. He growls in pain.
“Tell us where it is or I swear the next cut is going to be below the waist.”
He shifts uncomfortably. “I’ll take you there,” he growls.
I drag him to his feet. Something catches my eye. Mr. Steed storms up the driveway and barges through the front door.
“Jeremiah, what are you doing here?” he acknowledges the dark soul.
“Waiting for the fucking cavalry. What took you so long?”
He looks puzzled. “I’m not here for you.”
He turns his eyes to me. “Where’s my family?”
My stomach trips over itself.
“Mr. Steed…” Leah’s sorrow-filled voice floats over the tension.
“You bastard. You took him, didn’t you?” His rage flares and he charges me. I hold up my hands in defeat, not wanting to fight him. It’s not until we’re nose to nose that I feel the warm wet sensation soaking my stomach. I look down to see a knife deep in my stomach. My breathing hitches and my hands drop to his shoulders for support. Leah’s screams cloud my mind as my vision blurs. I see Liam rush us and struggle with Mr. Steed. My knees give out, my body drops, and Leah’s scent fills my senses.