The Life After Trilogy: Soul Taken / Soul Possessed / Soul Betrayed

I knelt down again next to Ally and reached out to touch her skin. Even though the sensation was unpleasant, I could feel her pulse as it rapidly declined.

“No,” I moaned. I looked up again to see if any of the Guard could help, but no one was around.

I looked back down at Ally. Her face was paling by the second. My soul started to tingle. I leaned closer to her body, reaching my hand out to touch her face again, when her arm moved toward mine.

I jumped back.

Heather pushed through the crowd. “Did she just move? Did I see her move?” Streaks of black mascara ran down her cheeks.

A ringing sensation tickled my ear and I tuned in to the True Soul’s presence. I looked at each human. The True Soul was close, but who had it? They all seemed equally shocked at the tragedy.

An uncomfortable pressure in my chest drew me closer to her body. My soul slanted toward hers until I was practically on top of her. I helplessly watched my hand morph and stretch toward her body.

“What the—?” I tried to pull back but the strength of whatever was happening had other ideas. My hand disappeared first, then my arm, then my torso.

But before I could call for help, my world went dark.

A suffocating heat pressed all points of my soul. Even though I hadn’t breathed in a hundred years, I felt the need to inhale, yet I couldn’t. A fire burned in my chest.

I attempted to open my eyes, to move one finger, a toe maybe, but the pressure immobilized my body. The burning sensation tore through me over and over until I had just about given up the fight.

But, just as quickly as the pressure came, it lifted, bringing a seemingly endless barrage of images. I was experiencing someone else’s memories, as if I took a back seat in her mind and watched her life flash before our eyes. I caught her image in a mirror, a small golden-haired girl.

Ally?

I tried to slow the images or possibly make sense of them but, just as I grabbed a hold on one of them, it slipped through my fingers and moved onto the next. I followed this girl through all the moments of her life as her memories flashed before my eyes.

Darker emotions overlapped the girl’s happy memories. I saw a young red-haired girl in an old-fashioned dress; her demure eyes looked back at me. Jealousy flared through me. My heart squeezed, watching this girl who was not part of Ally’s memories. A rush of energy pumped through my body; the power touched every fiber of my soul. Then the vision dissolved and I was forced back to experiencing Ally.

Was I dreaming?

Souls didn’t dream. I told myself firmly.

The visions started to slow and I was able to focus on one.

I had to tell them, even though Dad said I couldn’t. But in a week I wouldn’t be the same girl. Or would I? I still wasn’t clear on everything. Becoming a Guard: it was my life’s mission, he had said. A life that was no longer my own. Would it be easier to let this life slip away? I would regret each day if I didn’t. Maybe I would start with Seth. Sweet Seth. He’d be crushed, but someone would take my place. Dad had said something about people—humans—was I not human? Humans were drawn to those like me. Maybe Seth only liked me because I was different, unexplainably different.

I ripped the paper off the coffee sleeve. It was now or never.

“Hey guys,” I started, trying to find the words. Heather looked at me expectantly.

Something hard stabbed into the skin of my calf. My knee popped and I fell over, far over. Nothing held back my swift descent down the escalator.

My crushed bones offered no strength or grip. My teeth chattered against each other with each hit. I landed on the floor, my elbow close to my face.

That didn’t seem right.

Dozens of pairs of shoes filled my view. The squished gum stains on the floor would normally have been a deal-breaker but I lacked the ability to raise myself off the floor. A pretty girl knelt beside me, her almost clear blue eyes looked straight into mine, and I knew I would be safe.

My vision fogged up as tears blurred my vision, but they never fell. I watched a gray mist billow up behind the girl as she leaned over me. I tried to tell her about the mist that lifted and swirled over her head. But my eyelids were so heavy. Maybe I’d just rest for a minute…

I drew in my first conscious breath of air and gulped a few times. I sat up, opened my eyes and immediately closed them.

“She’s awake,” Calliope’s voice said. “Get Cooper.”

I lay back down on the bed and draped an arm over my eyes against the harsh glare.

“Bright,” I croaked.

I tried to open my eyes again but they burned.

I heard the light switch click, and the brightness behind my eyelids subsided.

I opened them again, one at a time. A sliver of sunlight peeked through the thin window shade, offering a less invasive light. The outline of flowers packed the shelf by the window.

Inhaling, I took in the beautiful scent of them, the mix tickling my nose in the best possible way.

I lifted my arm again and stopped. “This isn’t—” I inspected the manicured fingernails attached to the hand and arm that definitely was not mine.

“Turn on the lights, please,” I said, attempting to maintain calm. I tried to sit up but something hard rubbed against my leg, keeping me in place.

“Maggie, I—”

“Now Calliope!” I shrieked.

She flipped the lights on, blinding me for a second but the arm still wasn’t mine.

“Maggie, listen; don’t freak out. Her Caeleste blood is helping her heal but to do that her body needs to rest a little while longer.” Calliope was speaking from the side of the bed I was in.

I glanced around the room, which looked exactly like every hospital room I’d ever been in, except this one only had one bed, and actual furniture, including a leather couch.

Throwing the covers off I stared at the body that was very much corporeal and not mine. I inspected the arm I’d covered my face with. Tiny blonde hairs stood up on end at the sudden change in temperature. I grabbed a chunk of the golden hair attached to my head and pulled.

“Ow!”

Heat crept up my—no, not my, Ally’s body. Splotches of red mixed with the blue and purple bruises that peppered her skin. A rapid thumping throbbed inside of me.

A heartbeat!

I squeezed my eyes shut. This had to be a dream, or some sort of not-so-hilarious prank. I channeled the power I used to transition everywhere to transition out of the body. Opened my eyes and saw Calliope still in the same spot.

I slapped a hand on the bed. “Argh!”

Cooper appeared at Calliope’s side. “Shit,” he said in disbelief.

I stared at him. “No kidding! What happened?”

“Can you get out?” Cooper asked.

“Oh wow Cooper, I didn’t even think of that. Thank you so much for the suggestion.” Ally’s husky voice sounded strange in my head.

“It’s a valid question, Maggie,” Calliope snapped at me.

I crossed Ally’s arms. “I tried to transition out but I can’t.”

Cooper started pacing the small room. “Did you see what happened?” he asked.

I sucked on Ally’s lip. “There were a lot of people there. It could have been anyone.”

Calliope leaned forward. “Do you remember anything else?”

I lifted Ally’s arms, that were riddled with small bumps, and shivered. “Something pulled me inside of her. It was weird, almost as if her body, like, sucked me inside of it.” I stopped talking and moved Ally’s arm closer to her face.

“We know,” Cooper said unhelpfully.

Ignoring Cooper I twisted Ally’s arm in front of my eyes and saw the outline of my soul moving inside it.

“I can see me—” I swallowed. “In her? Is this normal?”

Cooper snorted. “Nothing about this is normal, but, yes, we can see you too.” He waved his hands, encompassing me. “Inside of her. You know most souls match the body they belong to so usually there isn’t a difference but I can see your soul… and her body.”

I stuffed her arm under the covers, hiding the fact that my soul was inside a human body.

Creepy.

“If I’m in here,” I stuttered, “where is she?”

They looked at each other.

“What did Felix say?” Calliope asked Cooper, changing the subject.

“Felix knows about this?” I shrieked. “Did he tell you how I can get out?”

“He said that if you couldn’t get out on your own then it might be something else,” Cooper said, moving toward the window avoiding my eyes.

“Like what?” I asked, even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“A Possession,” Cooper said.

Chapter Six

“Excuse me?” I said affronted. “I did not possess her body. Her body possessed me!”

“I’ve heard of this,” Calliope said sagely. “It was a practice the Shadowed used centuries ago to possess influential bodies so they could walk among the humans, procuring souls for their side.”

“Like zombies?”

“In a way, yes,” she said.

“Who are the Shadowed?” I looked from Cooper to Calliope. “Were they there? Were those the ones you were fighting when Ally fell?”

At that moment Aaron poked his head into the room. “We have company.” He looked at me and squinted. “Can you guys—?”

“Yes,” the three of us snapped. Aaron stepped back into the hall.

“Just sit tight and don’t talk if you can help it,” Cooper said. “We don’t want to alert anyone that Ally isn’t Ally.”

“Why?”

Cooper’s shoulders sagged. “The longer she isn’t well, the longer she stays here; we need to get back to the house where the wards can protect her.”

“And me?” I said.

“Yes,” Cooper nodded. “That’s what I meant.”

“Fine,” I watched Cooper and Calliope disappear from the room, leaving me alone.

An uncomfortable twinge spread across Ally’s arm. I scratched it with her long fingernails. When the sensation receded, I traced a finger across her arm, making those little bumps again. Then the twinge reappeared on Ally’s leg. I tugged the sheets off her left leg and saw a pink cast covering her from knee to foot. I scratched at the hard cast but the feeling didn’t go away.

“Here.” A wooden tongue depressor appeared in front of my face.

I sat back in the bed hurriedly.

A petite girl, around Ally’s age, stood by the bed. Her long dark hair twisted at the nape of her neck, sticking out in all directions. I looked at the badge that hung from a thin rope across her chest. It read, “Jamie Blackhorn, Volunteer.”

The name struck me as something I should be familiar with. A memory of Ally’s surged forward.

“Watch it, freak!” Ally snapped, her books scattering across the floor at her feet.

Heather, Krystal and a few other classmates scrambled to pick up Ally’s things from the floor.

Jamie looked up at Ally, terror etched across her face. “I’m—”

Heather and Krystal flanked Ally, all three pairs of eyes glaring at her.

Jamie shivered under her baggy paint-stained jeans and T-shirt.

Ally leaned over toward the girl’s trembling body. “Stay out of my way or I will destroy you.”

A tear streaked Jamie’s cheek as she nodded at Ally and bolted down the hall.

Ally watched the girl go, turning her glare on the rest of the kids that had formed a crowd around her. “And that goes for the rest of you.”

I blinked and the vision disintegrated. What was that?

“What is this for?” I pointed at the wooden stick, aware the girl was staring at me.

Jamie swallowed, her eyes darting across Ally’s face. “I broke my arm once, and it itched like crazy. I found a ruler and it became my best friend for eight weeks.” She squinted her eyes a few times.

What kind of people did they hire at this hospital? “What?” I said.

Her head shook furiously. “Nothing. The stick is for scratching.” She moved her hand in a sawing movement.

The tingles started up again and I grabbed the stick, slid it between the skin and cast and rubbed it against Ally’s skin. I moaned in pleasure and leaned Ally’s head back against the pillow. “That—is—amazing.”

“I’m glad to help.” Jamie smiled. “I need to take your vitals now. Do you mind?”

“No,” I said. I’d Collected many human souls from hospitals and seen them take these “vitals”; it didn’t look too painful.

Jamie placed a cuff around my arm and pumped a small rubber ball. The cuff tightened around Ally’s skinny arm, smothering it. I bit Ally’s lip and turned away, willing the agony to end. I held my breath as I felt Ally’s heartbeat in her arm. What sadistic person thought up this torture? How did humans stand it?

When she got her reading the pressure subsided and I let out a breath with it.

Jamie next put a stethoscope in her ears and placed the round part on the exposed skin of Ally’s upper chest. The cold circle sent a shock through me. I shifted under it.

“Sorry.” She took it away and rubbed it with her palms. “I forget how cold it gets in here.”

With each test I anticipated a new bodily reaction so as not to alert this girl that Ally wasn’t Ally. Or human for that matter.

Be human, be human. I repeated the mantra in my head.

I watched Jamie work, her hands swift and gentle, navigating the areas around Ally’s bruised arm so as not to touch them. She leaned into the bed, examining Ally’s arm.

“I did just fall down an escalator,” I said. Jamie was looking a little too closely, surely she couldn’t see what the others could?

She jolted and dropped Ally’s arm. “You’re a quick healer,” was all she said.

Before I could respond, a nurse came into the room and checked Ally’s chart. She introduced herself as Nurse Lucy. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

I repeated my new mantra in my head. “Good.”

“You took a nasty tumble there. You were lucky to only come out with a broken leg and some bruises.” She checked Ally’s skin and her brows furrowed. “Well, you did have bruises… I see someone takes her Vitamin C.”

She made a note in the chart. “Well, it looks like if you are feeling okay, you can leave right after the doctor sees you. I need a parent or guardian to sign your discharge papers.”

“Marie Lopez is here,” Jamie said.

“Who’s Marie?” I said before thinking. I pointed at my head, hoping that I could use Ally’s fall as an excuse for my oversight. “I meant, where is Marie?”

“Right here, Ms. Ally.”

Nurse Lucy and Jamie turned around, revealing a stout brown-skinned woman stepping through the doorway holding two cups of steaming coffee. The scent tickled my nose.

Another strange vision started to creep up, but I blinked it away.

“Here you go, Ms. Ally.”

I took the steaming cup from her hand and nearly dropped it. It was hot! I grabbed it with Ally’s other hand, touching only the top rim of the cup; it seemed to be the coolest part.

“She can’t have that,” Nurse Lucy said.

“You just said she is okay, right?” Marie challenged.

The nurse stiffened and checked the chart. “Just one cup,” she consented. “Are you ready to sign the paperwork, Mrs. Lopez?”

“It’s Miss.” With her accent it sounded like Meeez.

Nurse Lucy nodded and waved a hand for Marie and Jamie to follow.

“Feel better,” Jamie said, stepping out of the room.

“Thanks,” I smiled.

She opened her mouth to say something but stopped and gave me a quick wave before she left the room.

Cooper appeared at my bedside, and this time I did spill the coffee.

“Do you really have to pop in here unannounced?” I wiped at the stain spreading across the sheet. I could feel the heat through the thin material.

“We need to get you home, where David’s wards can protect her,” Cooper said.

“Yes, I am aware of that. The nurse said I have to meet with the doctor first.”

I took a sip of the coffee so I’d have less to spill on myself later. It tasted like burnt toast but the scent was delicious.

Cooper looked at me funny.

“What?” I asked, gulping down the rest of the coffee, even though it burned the inside of her mouth. A few drops dribbled from her lips.

“Attractive.” Cooper laughed.

I swiped the liquid off her face. “Shut up. What’s with the look?”

He shrugged. “You’re taking this seriously.” He sounded genuinely surprised.

“What else can I do at this point?” I said. “It’s not like I can transition out of her body.”

Cooper jutted his lip out and nodded as Calliope popped into the room. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped when the doctor knocked on the door.

“Good afternoon, Allegra,” he said with a hint of an Indian accent. “Let’s check you out so we can get you home and into your own bed.”

The doctor examined me, just as Jamie had, but a little more in depth. He got me with the cuff again but the pain wasn’t as bad the second time around. He asked questions about Ally’s health and Cooper assisted me with those. He poked Ally’s skin and I had to pretend she was in pain. He gave me a bottle of pain medication and arranged a follow-up appointment.

“I’ll have Jamie bring you some food to take with the pills.”

I waited for the doctor to leave before I acknowledged Cooper.

“How did I do?” I asked.

“You did fine,” he said.

I smirked and heard Calliope chuckle.

“So what’s the plan?” I turned to Cooper again.

“The plan is to get you home and keep you there until we find Ally’s soul and somehow get it back inside her body.”

“Okay,” I said. “That sounds easy enough. How long do you think that will take?”

They exchanged a look.

“Felix is working with the rest of the Guard as we speak. Hopefully they can retrieve her soul soon.”

“At least before—” Calliope started, but Cooper silenced her with a hand.

I looked between the two of them. “Before what?”

Calliope clasped her hands behind her back. “She should know what we are up against.”

Cooper scrunched his nose and sighed. “Like I explained before, the Prognatum undergo a transformation at eighteen.”

“Okay,” I said, not really understanding where they were going with this. “How old is Ally?”

“Seventeen,” Cooper answered.

“Then we should have plenty of time; it’s not like her birthday is tomorrow.”

Neither of them met my eyes.

Ally’s throat tightened and I swallowed hard, a lump forming in her throat. “Her birthday isn’t tomorrow, is it?”

“No,” Cooper said.

I exhaled, lifting a hand to Ally’s chest. “You two had me going there.”

Calliope stepped forward. “Her birthday is Friday.”

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