133: Concrete Horror -Saba-

I was floating in the dark, listening to the continuously grating sound of that horrible laughter. Any attempts to move proved ineffective and only made it harder to do so.

"Where are you going?" My blood ran cold as I recognized the voice, though I couldn't put a face to it.

Slowly my surroundings flooded in to focus. An elegant hall of hardwood lined with many paintings and photos. A smaller me stood a few feet away from a much taller man. The laughter faded away.

"Saba, where are you going?"

The smaller me started to cry, "I can't do it."

I watched as the man knelt down and looked in to my face, a look of caring in his eyes, "Life is never going to be easy, Saba. It's going to be hard, and sometimes the only thing you can do to get by is try as hard as you can to do what you need to do."

My fear subsided as little me ran to the taller man and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. Just as I thought that this scene wasn't so scary, I heard that low laughter again and the fear returned.

"Thanks, Patrick."

The man stood and reached his hand out to little me, "Anything for my little sister."

A smile found my face for a few moments before the laughter came again. The smaller me took his hand as we walked toward large, oaken doors.

The man put his hand on the door, "Now Saba, you go in there and make sure they're all dead."

He pushed the door open and screams flooded out. Screams of help and horror that filled my ears and saturated my mind with a deepening horror. The scene that seemed so pleasant before changed shape, instantly becoming something of a deeper evil. My breath caught in my chest, I tried to close my eyes and forget I was there. It was like a tootsie pop with a razor in the middle; sweet on the outside, but it just hides the horror beneath.

"Can we have ice cream after?", the smaller me smiled up to Patrick.

"Sure."

Through the door I could see deep red splatters on the floor and hear the clinking of chains.

The littler me stepped through and turned toward where the sounds were coming from.

"Saba! Please, God no!" They were begging for their life. Begging me to let them go, "Saba, your brother is crazy. Please honey, just let us go! You can't do this to us."

As Patrick slowly closed the door I watched as my smaller counterpart smiled sweetly, with all the caring of a child and said, "Daddy, life is never going to be easy . . ."

Her voice was cut off as the door shut completely. The laughter returned and this time I welcomed it, something known in a world of concrete horror. The laughter grew in intensity as I hung there in darkness, watching Patrick looking away from me at the closed door.

"That's not me."

"Yes, it is you." The laughter had spoken.

"No, I wouldn't do something like that." I was lying. I knew I was lying, I just didn't want it to be the truth.

"Not only did you kill your family, but you did more than that.", the laughter came again, "You killed a person every day for two years after."

In my head, I saw flashes of blood soaked bodies and glinting knives. In my head I heard their screams for help and mercy. The more I watched, the more I felt the innocence I'd witnessed before slowly fade away. I desperately clung to any piece of that innocence that I could.

"All for power."

I knew what he was meaning. I felt it in my bones now, maybe I'd always knew that my hands were unclean. A person isn't born a spirit persuader, they're grown. So many lives had been ended by me, so many people never got to live their lives because of my blade. All in the pursuit of power over spirits.

"It's too late for you.", Patrick had turned and was staring directly at me, "There's no way to clean your hands. You are a monster, and you'll always be a monster."

Every time he said monster I saw something odd flash beneath the illusion I knew to be his face. A darker and more evil face, something not human and older than the world. Patrick started walking closer and the scene behind him faded away.

"You killed so many.", Patrick's face blinked away for an instant and the horror of the face beneath made me catch my breath, "You are more of a monster than I am."

His face was inches from mine and he smiled, his mouth full of sharp pointy teeth with a smile that was all too wide. "Not only did you kill them . . ."

As I felt myself yanked backwards into the darkness, I knew what he was going to say; not only did I kill them . . .

But I loved it.

132: Pleasantly Abstract -Saba- (Written by Crystal Ferguson)

(I promised you people a guest writer and here she is. This post was written by a good friend, Crystal Ferguson. Enjoy and be sure to comment so that she knows how well it is. I personally liked it a lot.)

The Soulscape proved to be beyond weird. My eyes gazed upon numerous things surrounding me. For some reason the images appearing seemed familiar. It must deal with one of my souls, but which one?

Sounds of joyful laughter filled my ears as images of a child-sized version of me ran by. A little boy followed after her, as well as some other unrecognizable children. Remnants of toys were scattered about my feet as the children ran by. The sun that shone above beamed down, the heat becoming intense. A playground was the background of the entire scene, along with homes along the road. As this went on, confusion filled my mind; as well as a sense of sorrow. Such a world of happiness never existed in my mind- especially not like this.

I stood watching for a minute or so then took a few steps forward. A look of discontent was marked on my face. How were they all so cheerful? Why didn't I remember this? It seemed entirely unfair. I huffed out a sigh, practically envying the smaller me.

More images began to form and danced out their re-enactments of childhood days. They played games, some looking to involve puzzles even. This whole world itself was puzzling enough. Sadness seeped its way into my brain even more so. I crossed my arms and held myself, closing my eyes in the process. The next thing I knew, my body was spinning. I kept my eyes shut out of fear and uncertainty.

Coming to a stop I cautiously opened my eyes. Strings of color swirled about me, the child like laughter filling the air. The scene from before had morphed in to an abstract painting. A feeling of panic swelled up inside me, causing me to shake my head a bit.

"What's going on? This doesn't even make sense!"

Perhaps it was a mistake to make an outburst. A low chuckle replaced the child like laughter. It began to rise, a full maniacal laughter taking over. With a pounding heart and a swimming head, I looked around in hopes of finding a way to escape what ever it was that mocked me. Of course it wasn't that simple.

The rainbow colored strings began to twist and hiss, the strings blackening as they drew in closer. A scream managed to escape my lungs as the hissing threads wrapped about my body. Grunting and struggling, the abstract world now oozed with pure darkness.

The tingling and sinking feeling from my bottom half told me I was being sucked down. I should have just kept my thoughts to myself. The thought of darkness engulfing me was very unpleasant.

This trip to find my souls was proving to not only be weird, but down right disturbing as well. Before the darkness completely engulfed me I managed to let out one last scream of panic.

Realizing that no one was coming to my rescue, the truth sunk in. The remainder of my body slipped into the oozing blackness and the laughter made my ears ring.

I was on my own.

131: Ignored -Ben-

The convenience of Crystal’s new talent was not lost on any of us, and it made me more than suspicious. Then again, it was just what we needed at the moment, and I know better than to bite the hand that feeds.

"You sure you can do this?"

"Ben, I don't even know how I know this. Just a few weeks ago I was a zombie with minimal intelligence, and now I'm flying a plane. It's kind of startling."

"So we can tell the passengers that everything is going to be okay?"

"No.", Carl tapped my shoulder and I turned around to see the man we'd knocked out, standing.

While nothing about him had changed, something was different; feminine. He was staring intently at Carl and smiling like someone who knew too much. The man knelt and went for his gun.

Carl moved quickly, reaching for the man’s shoulder and arm. Before he could get close enough, the man swung his arm up; smacking Carl in the face. Carl fell back on the ground holding his jaw.

"Be a good boy and stay still.", he looked at Carl and laughed.

He stood up with the gun and slipped it in to the holster, "What a coincidence that the one plane I decided to use was the one you'd be on. A sad coincidence. I told you not to interfere, I told you so long ago."

Carl looked more angry than usual, "Merczel."

I glanced at Carl, "You know him?"

It's very unusual to see a grown man jump up and down clapping his hands with a giddy smile on his face, "You remember! Aw, so sweet."

The man known as Merczel began waving his hands around, "Carl, Carl, Carl. You could have just backed out of this, but of course your crew has to interfere. Like a righteous storm, you descend upon the undeserving and smite them for their sins."

Crystal glances back, "Is there any chance that this could be taken somewhere else? It's getting really cramped in here. All this tension and violence is making it a little difficult to concentrate on keeping all these people ALIVE."

Merczel laughed, "Little girl, these people aren't going to survive. Best you go join the others in the passenger cabin."

I looked at Crystal, "Keep flying, we'll take it somewhere else."

The man had a small fit, "NO! Why does no one ever listen to me?! I said to go with the others! Who the Hell are you to go against my word?!"

Carl leaped up, grasping the guy around his middle and tossing him through the cockpit door. The man rolled on the floor and then leaped to his feet in time to knee Carl in the face. Nick jumped back in surprise, letting a small stream of fire from his hands toward Merczel. Merczel yelped in pain and turned toward Nick in anger.

"WARLOCK!", the man swung his arm swiftly and Nick flew in to the passenger cabin like a discarded toy, "I hate warlocks."

I moved to the passageway between the cockpit and the passenger cabin, "Carl, who is he?"

Merczel pointed toward Carl, "Conversing with warlocks now? Strange things are just attracted to you, huh? Who are these people you're with now? I admit, the girl didn't show any signs of usefulness. Quite a surprise when she coincidentally can fly this type of plane. And whose this idiot?", he pointed to me, "What is he? The boss? What a joke."

Carl stood, wiping blood on his shirt, "Merczel, these people here aren't going to die. My friend in there is going to land this plane and you will have failed. Give up."

Why didn't anyone listen to me? "Carl, who is he?!"

The man stopped smiling, he just stared at Carl. After a few moments he spoke, "You intend to stall my plans?"

Carl looked at Ben and laughed a bit. Then he turned to the man and smiled, "Melissa, I plan on stopping them."

My mind did a quick backtrack. Melissa? What?!

130: Uncertain Knowledge -Crystal-

My job was to stop Nick from casting the spell as soon as they had the cockpit, but I couldn't. To be honest the guy scared me. Here was the guy who fought the Snake Goddess' control of me when I was a zombie and had brought me back to life. He could do things no other human could, and being in the same room with him left me with a sick feeling. I had no idea what he would do next.

Somehow, this one was different; less menacing and certainly not as mean. If this was the same man, then something very serious happened to him. This new him was filled with a sort of youth and really didn't exhibit any of the abilities the one I'd met had.

As I reached to shake his shoulder I decided to give him another chance. See if he turned out to have the same ruthless style.

He lifted his head and looked at me, "Oh, hey Crystal. Are they done?"

"It seems so.", I was scared but I forced a smile through.

Nick tipped his head sideways and looked at me, "You look scared. Don't worry, we'll get through. I'm sure."

I had trouble deciding whether he knew it'd be okay, or he if was just reassuring me.

Nick stood and walked toward the cockpit. I watched him leave and slowly stood. I took a quick look around and followed.

As I stepped in to the cockpit it seemed oddly familiar. On a whim I sat down and began checking all the gauges and fuel. My finger flicked the plane off auto-pilot and I turned it to the left slightly, keeping it level with the horizon.

"This isn't so hard."

I glanced back to see everyone there staring at me in surprise. Slowly it dawned on me. I wasn't supposed to know this. For a few seconds I almost lost control, but I forced the large vehicle on to the right track.

"Crystal?" It was Ben.

"Yeah?"

"How are you doing this?"

"I'm not sure. Truthfully, I'm kinda scared. I've never done this before. What if I let it down too hard? What if I miss the landing? What if I misread the altimeter and lower the wing flaps too late?"

"Crystal, I don't even know what wing flaps are used for."

There was no denying it.

I could fly a plane.

129: A Sign Of The Past -Carl-

"Shit!", the voice on the other side of the cockpit door was full of panic, "It's not supposed to happen yet."

Nick sat on the floor nearby, his eyes closed, full concentration on the spell he was working on. On the other side of that door, two dead bodies and a very scared man felt the plane tip downward. Now all we had to do was wait for the man to come outside.

A voice came over the loudspeaker instead, "Well, I'm sorry to tell you but we are going to be landing long before schedule. Your deaths were supposed to be for something important, they were supposed to save the lives of millions. With out the pilots I can't figure out how to keep this plane in the air, so while we spend our last moments together, I'll tell you why I'm here.”

"I used to push papers for a living and I had a beautiful family. Then we had a visitor, a man with a small faerie doll. The doll was made with expert craftsmanship, and my daughter fell in love with it instantly. So we bought it for her from the man who sold it to us for a very small price. I will never forget coming home from work that day."

I felt my body stiffen as I realized what I was hearing. There was no way it was them; no way.

"From down the street I could see the lights of the police and medical vehicles. The police say there was an accidental gas leak and the house exploded, but I know otherwise.”

"I was put up in a hotel and that night I got a phone call. It was the man that stopped by my house. What he said was that he hoped I'd learned my lesson. He said that maybe the next time I'd pay more attention to my children. He said neglecting to give them attention had made me homeless and with out family. Then he hung up."

I felt a sinking feeling in my gut. The Fae Merczel and Josh were still out there, and by the sounds of it they were still doing things the same way.

"So I searched, and after 2 years I'd found them. They live in a building in New York. The same building that this plane was headed for, but as you by now have realized, this plane is going down now."

The cockpit door opened and I swung my foot out, catching the man in the chin. He fell in to a crumpled heap on top of the bodies of the pilots. I stepped inside and felt the world tip downward. Nick was still working his magic because he didn't know it was over.

"Hey, Ben?"

Ben looked around the corner, "Yeah?"

"So, we make the guy come out. Right?"

"Yeah."

"Then, I knock him out, disarm him, and take the cockpit?"

"Sounds about right."

"Okay, then what?"

"Well, then we land it . . .", Ben's face went pale-white, "Oh."

Flashback 128: Washington & Merczel -Carl-

The branches bit against my cheek as I ran through the bramble behind my home, but in my anger I didn't notice. She shouldn't have done this. It had to have been her, it was no accident that the fridge fell on our Father. Not that I cared about my Father, but she wasn't supposed to do anything for me anymore. She promised.

Bursting in to a small clearing, I came face to face with the most probable cause of my Father’s death. The Fae, Merczel.

Her long ears perked up and she turned. Her body was the darkest black with a hint of purple and her wings were bigger than her body, and shined a deep blue. She moved with much less grace than you'd expect from a faerie, and she gave me a scrunched face as I approached.

"Smile you big meanie-head. You're ruining the mood.", she floated up in to the air and stared at me.

"I told you to stay out of our lives when we first moved here!" I admit, I wasn't very nice.

She laughed a little and flew over to sit on a leaf. Her lightweight body barely made the leaf move as she landed.

"It's not like you needed him around anyway, all he did was beat you."

"That's not the point! You killed someone! This is just like last time, when you gave our Father a gimp leg for a month; he couldn't work so he beat us for weeks! You just have to take it too far and now someone’s dead!"

She was very silent and didn't have a smile on her face.

"It was an accident. I was just supposed to hurt him."

"You weren't supposed to be there!"

To my surprise she looked at me and smiled, "I had no choice.", she giggled, "My newest charge told me a friend of his needed help. He told me to do something about it, so I did. Seeing that he's gone I think I did well."

"You did very, very well." The voice came from the bushes ahead and out of them stepped someone who I'd only seen a couple of times in school. Joshua Washington. Being two years younger than me, he was shorter. He had a mulatto complexion and looked to be average weight.

"Josh. You told her to kill my Dad?"

"No. I told her to stop your Dad from hurting you." Josh glanced at Fae, who flew over and landed on his shoulder. She leaned over and gave him a peck on his cheek.

"Josh, you don't know what she's capable of. She's dangerous. Just tell her to go away before she does worse."

Out of sight of Josh, The Fae Merczel looked at me and bared her tiny sharp teeth at me.

"I can control her. She won't do that again.", he glanced at the Fae and she quickly smiled and nodded, "I can control her."

"So, you know her first name then?"

Josh gave her a sheepish smile and then looked back at me, "Soon she'll tell me."

"You won't control her until you know her first name. Faes are controlled by their first name and nothing else. I'm willing to bet she killed him on purpose."

Josh scoffed at me, "Why can't you just be happy that you won't be beaten anymore?"

"Because she's killed someone.", I took a step toward him.

"She didn't mean to. She won't do that again."

"No you need to listen to me, her name is Mel-"

I woke up two hours later alone in the small clearing. On the ground was a small note in small writing that read:

"Don't worry. We won't be coming back here to bother you. We’re going to explore the world and see amazing things together! I'm sorry I had to knock you out, but I can't have him knowing my name; he's very important in my plans. I'm sure we'll run in to each other again. If you ever need my help, you know how to get it.

Sincerely, the Fae Merczel.

P.S. If you screw up my plans, I'll kill you dead."

I haven't seen them since.

Flashback 127: Stone Cold Dead -Carl-

"Push harder, boy! I didn't raise a weakling!"

I was a ten year old trying to carry a fridge up the stairs; two flights of stairs. John was off hiding somewhere like he always did; trying to keep himself away from our Father’s wrath. John knew that if I let the refrigerator fall down the stairs that Dad wouldn't check for broken bones. He'd just start beating on me until he got scared of killing me.

He was like that, a rough man with too much anger to hold in. So when things didn't go right, or he had a bad day, or the rain got too loud for him to tolerate; he'd turn to John and I as an outlet. I got the most of it mainly because I talked back and got in his face. Anything to keep him from beating on John.

Mom never tried to stop him, because she was busy watching soaps on the television and complaining about how many bills needed to be paid. She used to be beautiful but since we could understand what she was saying, all we heard was how if she hadn't had us then she'd be thin and beautiful. Bitch.

Bitch: I'd just learned that word the other day at school. Overheard Joshua Washington say that about one of the teachers and thought that it suited my Mother well.

As the fridge slid over the last step, I fell to the floor exhausted. I could barely feel my arms and what I did feel didn't feel good.

"Why are you laying down on the job? That's gotta go in the kitchen, you lazy brat! Where's that brother of yours? We could just let him do it. How old is he? Six? Seven?"

My brother was four and certainly couldn't handle a fridge like this.

"No, that's all right. I've got it."

I got to my feet and began pushing the large refrigerator toward the kitchen. As my Father walked away, I spotted John looking around the corner of our bedroom door.

Three weeks later, our Father was dead. The fridge fell on him, crushing his throat. The police said that it was misaligned and off balance. They said that he must have laid there unable to breathe for his last moments. That was my first run-in with death and taught me exactly what it was. I would never see my Father again.

I didn't know if I cared.

Entry 126: The Soulscape -Saba-

I didn't need him. I could do it myself. Just one last try and that's it.

I sat down in front of the brick wall that was once Merlin's store and closed my eyes. I relaxed my entire body and pushed the world out of my mind. Slowly, I felt the pain build up and in my mind I could see the ties of this world and of the Soulscape; both trying to pull me into their world. What I had to do now was slowly release myself from my worldly bonds and allow myself to be pulled in to the Soulscape.

The more ties I undid the more the pain increased, until I could barely think to release the other ones. I couldn't do it. It was too much. The pain of losing this world filled my mind, screaming warnings and telling me to go back. I had slowly began to give up when the image of Crystal filled my mind. There I was being beaten, laying on the ground not wanting to get up, too scared to move. Crystal was tougher though. Crystal didn't give up. She pulled herself to her feet and ran at the danger; she even made her point known with the palm of her hand. Even Jay, the fallen one, had not given up and when a close friend was going to die, he did the extraordinary and risked his life to save him. Everyone that I'd come across since as far back as I could remember had forced themselves past their capacity, and in to greatness. They not only took the risks needed, but they never fell back and never gave in.

I wanted to be with them, to be like them. I would be like them. I could barely move to untie the rest but it was time for me to make a sacrifice. Time for me to enter in to greatness just as all of them had. With a sweep of my hand I cut all the connections to the world at once. Cut; not untied.

Pain flooded my mind as I was yanked into the Soulscape and thrown like a rag doll in a hurricane. I swore I felt actual physical pain but it was muted, because I no longer had a connection to the world. Finally the movement stopped and I felt solid ground under me. I pushed myself to my feet and looked around.

I had entered the Soulscape.

Entry 125: Give Up, or Go On? -Saba-

"I can't.", my mind felt like it was being torn apart and thrown to opposite sides of the world.

"Well, then stop." Merlin's small voice was hard to hear over my ears ringing.

I relaxed and felt the world slowly pull back together and come in to focus.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'll just live out the rest of my days in peace." I pulled myself to my feet.

"You tried, I guess that counts for something, even if you didn't finish.", Merlin was extra distant and sharper with his words than usual, "Still, if you aren't going to try anymore then get out. I won't teach quitters and I can't stand your whining."

I glanced at the clock, "Master, it's almost two in the morning and I have no idea where I am. You can't make me go out there."

"How can a person who doesn't care about themselves expect others to care about them? You want to give up on life then so be it, I'm not going to have a corpse rotting up my home."

I felt the anger build up, "What do you mean I don't care? I'm here and I gave it my best shot! I'm not good enough!"

Merlin swooped toward me faster than a decrepit, old man should be able to move. His eyes filled with anger and his face hard and cold, "You don't care! If you cared even a little more than you would, sit down and endure the pain! 'I can't.' 'I won't.' These are words that shouldn't even enter your mind, because if you leave this house with out learning to do this, then you will DIE!"

"MAYBE I'M MEANT TO!", and with that I turned and walked out the door.

I stood there in the street, thinking about what Merlin had said. He was right, I was giving up. I didn't want to die, but the pain of entering the Soulscape was excruciating.

The Soulscape was the place within a person where their soul resides; somewhere between memory and reality. If one wanted to get rid of their soul, or find souls that were lost in The Void, they had to go there. Only a few people could. Merlin had said that only Warlocks and Spirit Persuaders could enter, and that warlocks needed powerful and ancient magic to make the journey. Magic that he didn't even have access to. The Soulscape is directly linked to The Void, or Limbo, and all I had to do to save myself was get all the souls that had made their home in my body in one place. Then expel the useless one.

I turned to go back in to the store and give it one more try, only to find a brick wall where the store had been. I ran to it and pounded with all my might, but it was very real and very solid brick. Merlin had left me. The guys had left me. My souls had left me. I was alone, completely alone.

And I was going to die.

124: Too Much, Too Little; Just Enough. -Ben-

"Ben . . . what do we do?", Crystal could barely speak.

"Shit. Shit. Shit.", Nick was pacing up and down the aisles while the passengers whimpered loudly.

"Ben, just let me bust in and I'll show him exactly how I feel about what he just did." Carl growled, his eyes on the loudspeaker.

I couldn't think. I just kept running the situation over and over in my head, trying to see what I could have done differently to keep those innocent people from dieing. Instead, I kept rehearing that evil man’s voice and the sudden claps as Bob and Jim's lives were taken right out from underneath them. Too many noises filled my thought. People were crying, my own team was unsure of where to go next. Thoughts in my head betrayed me by assaulting me non-stop with; “What-ifs?” and, “How could yous?” If only I'd stopped Carl from boasting. If we'd just taken a different flight. If only I'd never found that book.

"Hey."

At the sound of that voice my mind cleared. I turned to look and found a kind looking, middle-aged man smiling at me. A young girl lay in his lap contently, sleeping as though the horrors around us weren't happening.

"My name is Gilfred Odephius Doorstop, and you seem to be the only person who can get us out of this mess."

"I just killed two people. I believe your faith may just be a little mistaken. You should probably start praying now."

The man chuckled as if enjoying a joke that only he understood, "I'm not mistaken, you're just distracted. So many people around you needing your help, and all you can think of is your mistakes."

I could feel the anger welling up, "Thank you for revealing my shortcomings."

"Shortcomings? No, no, knowing your mistakes is important. Letting them control you is not."

"This isn't helping at all and I know that's all you're trying to do, but you're rooting for the wrong team."

"Ben . . . you didn't kill those men. That evil bastard in the cockpit did. There was nothing you could do, they were going to die either way. Save these people, I know you can do it."

The world suddenly flooded back, the voices, the crying and my thoughts. I forced the thoughts of failure aside and looked at Nick.

"Nick, I need your magic."

"Why?"

"We're going to crash the plane."