Predestined (3 page)

Miranda beamed at me, “I love
you.”

“Ditto.”

Hopefully, the library ghost would
be somewhere else today. The soul who always wandered around in
there was distracting.

Dank

I watched as Pagan led Miranda up
to the library. She’d be busy for awhile and I had somewhere I
needed to be. There was a soul I didn’t want to leave waiting for
me. I needed to be there for this one’s actual death. Once Pagan
entered the library and I knew she was safe for the time being, I
left.

Before Pagan, I hadn’t understood
love. Before Pagan, taking souls had been easy. Now, I knew
emotion. I knew pain and the feeling of loss and it made my purpose
harder. Especially with the young ones. Even though I knew they’d
get another life soon enough I understood their family’s pain as
they lost someone they held dear. Because although the soul of that
child would return it wouldn’t be the same. They wouldn’t know the
child they loved was once again with them when the soul returned in
a new life.

“It’s time, isn’t it?” the little
boy looked up at me as I entered his hospital room. I’d been to
talk to him before. Several times actually. I wanted him to
understand he would be dying soon but that if he followed my
directions then he’d be given another life. His soul would live on.
This life would just end. His bottom lip quivered as he stared up
at me.

“Yeah, it’s time.”

“Will it hurt?”

I shook my head, “I promised you it
wouldn’t, didn’t I?”

He nodded and pulled the dark green
dinosaur closer against his chest tucking it under his chin. It had
been a week since I’d last been here. His face was more drawn and
the circles under his eyes were darker. The sickness was taking
over.

“Mommy thinks I’m going to get
better. I tried to tell her I wasn’t.”

The tightness in my chest appeared.
This used to be so easy.

“Those who love you don’t want to
accept that your body in this life has grown too sick to continue.
But remember: you’ll come back. You’ll be born into a new body and
you will return to this family. Maybe not tomorrow or the next day
but one day you’ll return.”

He sniffed and rubbed his nose
against the stuffed animal he obviously loved.

“Yeah, but you said I wouldn’t
remember this life. I’d forget who I once was. I don’t want to
forget Mommy and Daddy. I don’t want to forget Jessi, even if she
can be mean sometimes, she’s my big sister.”

This was why Death wasn’t meant to
feel emotion. I wanted to cuddle the kid up in my arms and make
false promises. Anything to ease his fear but this was his fate.
He’d be back soon. I’d already asked about his soul after meeting
him the first time. His sister was sixteen. In six years she’d give
birth to a baby boy who’d she name after her brother and this soul
would return.

“I know but you have to trust me.
This is the way life works. You may not remember this life but your
soul will always be attached to the ones you love. Your soul will
be happy and although you won’t remember, your soul will feel like
it’s come home.”

The little boy nodded and set the
dinosaur down. “Mommy just left to get me some ice. Can we wait
until she comes back? I want to tell her bye,” he choked on that
last word.

I nodded and stood back as the door
to his room opened. In walked his mother. She was also thinner
since my last visit and the sorrow and fear rolling off her was
breathtaking. The dark circles under her eyes looked almost as if
she were the one dying today.

“Sorry it took so long, baby. I had
to go to the next floor to get the ice you like,” she hurried to
his side. The wrinkled clothes hung on her frail frame. She was
already grieving. She knew. She may have told her son he was going
to get better but she knew.

“Mommy,” his weak voice said with
more strength than I expected. I watched as the small child reached
for his mother’s hand. He was about to comfort her. His body might
be young but his soul wasn’t. He had an old soul. One that had seen
many lives. At the moment of death the soul began to take over.
Even though his mind was that of a five year old his soul knew that
his mother needed him to be strong right now.

“I love you,” he said and a sob
rattled her body. I wanted to hug her to help ease her pain but I
couldn’t. Death wasn’t meant to comfort.

“I love you too sweet boy,” she
whispered squeezing his small hand in hers.

“I’ll never really go away okay.
Don’t be sad.”

He tried as so
many others had to explain to the ones they were leaving behind
that they would return. But like all humans she began weeping and
shaking her head in denial. Facing the loss of her little boy was
too much for her mind to comprehend.

“Don’t talk like that baby. We’re
going to fight this,” she said with a fierceness only a desperate
mother could muster at a time like this.

“No mommy. I need to go now but I
promise, I’ll always be here.”

I stepped up beside him as his
mother covered his small body with hers. His small hand reached out
to mine and I grasped it. He nodded and I took his soul.

“You always summon me for the tough
ones. Why is that? Hmmmm? Cause your girlfriend likes me so you’re
getting back at me?” Gee grumbled as she strutted into the hospital
room.

“This isn’t about you Gee. It’s
about the kid. Take his soul now. He doesn’t need to see the rest.
He needs to go on up.”

Gee glanced down at the mother
weeping over the body that had once housed the soul. Her sobs were
getting more intense and the nurses began rushing into the room
shouting. Immediately Gee took the soul’s hand and left without
another word. She might be a pain in my ass but she wasn’t
heartless. That’s why I always sent for her when it was a death
like this one. With one last glance back at the grieving mother I
left the room. She’d love her grandson one day and hold him close
to her as she told him all about his uncle. The soul might not
remember that life but he’d know what a fighter his uncle had been
and that the life he’d only experienced for a short time would
never be forgotten. His next life he’d grow old with his own
grandchildren to tell stories to.

Chapter Three

“Hey,” Pagan murmured
in her soft, sexy, sweet tone that meant she missed me. Normally I
didn’t leave during the day to take souls. Only the tough ones or
ones I’d made a connection with. I didn’t have to be there for a
body to die. I just had to be there to take the soul attached to it
away from the body. So, although people died every second of every
day I wasn’t always there at that moment. It’s why people often saw
the “ghost” of their loved ones hours after their death. The soul
stayed with the body until I came for it. Then there were the souls
who refused to go. The ones who wouldn’t leave. The ones who became
lost souls and wandered the earth for all eternity
confused.

“You look...sad,” she pointed, out
wrapping her arms around my waist.

“Just thinking,” I assured her,
pulling her tightly against my chest.

“You just took a soul, didn’t you?”
she replied, studying me.

I nodded.

“A kid?”

I nodded again, “a boy.”

She understood. We’d talked about
this before. There were so many things she’d wanted to know and I
was helpless where she was concerned. I couldn’t manage to tell the
girl no.

“When will he come
back?”

“In six years.”

“Who took him?”

“Gee.”

“Oh, good. He’ll like
her.”

I grinned. Gee wasn’t the most
likable being I’d ever met but for some strange reason Pagan liked
her. Even when she’d thought Gee was a teenage girl who suffered
from schizophrenia.

She laid her head against my chest
and sighed. Death wasn’t something Pagan dealt with well but she
was learning to understand it more.

Pagan

The
tree wasn’t so big.
Stupid
Wyatt didn’t know nothing. Just because I was a girl didn’t mean I
couldn’t climb it too. I’d show him. By the time he got here I’d be
all the way at the top. See if he thinks girls can’t do things boys
can do. HA! We can do them better. Cause we’re just
cooler.

Glancing back to see if Mom was
watching from the kitchen window and finding it all clear I grabbed
a hold of the rough bark. It was warm and sticky. Once I had both
arms and legs wrapped firmly around it I began inching myself up
higher. I just wouldn’t look down. I’d keep making my way until I
was at the tippy top. No reason to look down. That would just mess
me up. A sliver of wood cut into my hand and I yelped pulling it
back to see if I was bleeding. There was a small splinter poking
out of my hand and I pressed my palm against my mouth and used my
teeth to pull it out. Smiling with satisfaction once the small
painful bark was firmly between my teeth I jerked it out and spit
the offending object out.

See, I was as tough as any boy.
Wyatt and his dumb mouth saying I was weak. Whatever! I continued
my upward climb. Maybe once he saw how much cooler I was than him
because I could climb higher he’d let me into his new treehouse.
That “boys only” sign looked just plain stupid anyway. Mom said I
needed to ignore them and let the boys have their special hideout
but I couldn’t do that. It just wasn’t fair when I was the one who
came up with the treehouse idea in the first place. Besides, all
Miranda wanted to do was put on makeup and paint our nails. Who
wanted to waste time doing that stuff? Not me! That’s
who.

My foot slipped
and I tightened my hold on the trunk trying not to panic. I could
do this. My hands began to sweat and my firm grasp had weakened.
This wasn’t good. I moved my arm so I could find something to hold
onto other than the tree trunk when my other foot slipped and I
went into a free fall backwards. I tried to scream but nothing came
out. Closing my eyes tightly I waited for the ground to slam into
my back. It was going to hurt.

“Umph, got you,” a familiar voice
said and I opened my eyes to see a boy staring down at me. He was
holding me. Odd. Shaking my head I stared up at the tree I’d just
fallen from and tried to remember how I knew this boy. Had I hit my
head and he picked me up?

“Uh,” I replied still confused.
I’d been falling. Then... this boy was holding me and
talking.

“What were you doing up there?
That was too high.”

I turned my gaze back to his, “Um,
I uh... did you catch me?” I asked incredulously.

He grinned and the baby blue color
of his eyes appeared to darken. “Yeah. Why else do you think you’re
not lying on the ground with a few broken bones?”

I shook my head and pushed to
stand up. He put me down easily and once again I was startled by
how familiar he looked. Did he go to school with us?

“Where’d you come
from?”

He shrugged, “Just around. Saw you
climbing too high and came over to see if you needed
help.”

“Do I know you?” I asked watching
his face take on a strange smile.

“I wish you did but you don’t. Not
yet. It isn’t time.”

“What do you mean?”

He was weird and he talked like a
grown up.

“Pagan Moore, get your butt over
here if you’re going to get a sneak peek at my tree house before
the boys get here,” Wyatt was standing at the street grinning at me
like he’d just offered me a million dollars.

What was he talking about a
“peek?” I wanted IN. Not a stupid peek. I glanced back at the boy
who’d caught me to see if he wanted to come too but he was
gone.

“Almost time, almost time, almost
time, almost time.”

I sat up in bed
gasping for breath as the chanting in my ear faded away. The same
voice from yesterday. I knew that voice. Didn’t I? And what did it
mean by “almost time.”

I dropped my head into my hands and
sighed. What was happening to me? These dreams seemed so real. Like
memories I’d forgotten. The same boy. The same voice.

I stared through my fingers at the
light barely coming through my window. The sun wasn’t even
completely up yet. There was no way I was going back to sleep. Mom
would be thrilled I’d managed to get up in time to eat breakfast
with her today. The dream was going to bother me. I needed to ask
Wyatt about that tree. Had I told him about falling? I couldn’t
remember. Maybe he would.

Getting out of bed I brushed my
hair and stood at my window studying the old oak tree. It felt like
there was another memory attached to that tree but I couldn’t quite
remember it. I put the brush down and slipped on my flip flops and
made my way outside. I wanted to go out there. It was almost as if
the tree suddenly had some sort of invisible pull to it.

The cool morning air caused me to
shiver as I walked down the porch steps and across the damp grass.
A jacket would have been a wise decision but I’d been too anxious
to come see this tree.