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It had been some years after my new life when I created held an epiphany
I had snuck into an orphanage one night. I had a new idea for my soul research and I needed a child. Their medical
ward contained the terminally ill children, and I melded into the shadows to
find the child that would be dead, less blood on my hands. These….scam artists
that tended to these children would give them false pretenses, they lied to
them and would tell them that they would be ok; their sickness would just go
away, that they were going to get cured soon. Filthy dogs, all of them. The
kids knew their time was up, they were abandoned children, considered a burden
upon their parents and dumped to die without having to pay a cent. These so
called healers just took them in to use the money for themselves, letting the
children die to make more room.
A girl left in a
solitary room caught my eye. I remembered how the room was an ugly canary
yellow, with faded rainbows and dragons painted on the walls. I remembered the
doctors telling this girl that she had Blood Lung, which I knew was a
debilitating sickness that caused the afflicted to eventually cough up bloody
chunks of their rotting lungs. It was a quite painful death that was lined up
for that girl, but they just gave her a sugar pill and told her she would be
fine, at least give the child some real medicine if you were going to lie to
her....
I waited for the
doctors to leave, and I took my cue. It was late, the moonlight cut a beautiful
glow from the window. I remembered how her skin glowed from the radiant
moonbeams. I heard her weak coughs as she tried to sleep. I stood over her bed,
and with one gaunt hand I lightly stroked her head.
The subtle touch woke
her from her sleep. I remembered those blue eyes of hers locking into mine.
Then her gaze shifting to my smile, and she smiled back. I was confused, she
had no fear, most children would cry out that the "Grinning Gheist"
had come (I had become a sort of bogeyman for parents to threaten their kids
with).
“Are you a doctor sir?”
She wheezed, her throat strained from her plague.
“Yes my little cherub,
I am Doctor Edgar Von Engel.” I cooed at her, one scrawny finger scratching
under her chin.
Her eyes lit up when she
heard my name; she even attempted a weak giggle. “Your name means angel in old
Elven!” she said with her smile, I noticed she was missing her two front teeth.
“Yes” I remembered saying while musing over my own name, “and this angel
is going to make you better.” I said holding out my hand.
She began a fit of
coughing and her body went limp, passing out from the pain in her body. I
recalled my sudden sense of urgency; I had to bring her back to the lab.
Within a couple hours I
remembered I had begun the process of strapping this young girl down to my work
table. I remembered hearing something
that was in between the coo of a dove and the cry of a puppy, the little girl
had awoken while I was preparing the vessels that I would house her soul in.
“Mr. Edgar?” She
coughed out, “Where are we?”
“Like I said my dear, I
am going to save you.” I remembered repeating that phrase many times, I don’t remember if I kept
repeating it in my head or out loud, but I remembered that she would always
smile when she saw my face, and, as always, I wore my grin. I liked that way of
thinking, she seemed to always grin and bear it, even though her body was
wracked by terrible pain, she always found the strength to smile at me, a
complete stranger that promised her “salvation.”
The machine had
prepared my greatest vessel to date. A small ruby, the size of a finger nail,
had been energized by arcane electricity and previous soul magics. I was hoping
to transfer the girl's soul into such a vessel, to hopefully anchor it to the
material world.
“What is your name my
sweet?”
“I-its Elheim, Elheim
van Gottlieb.” She managed to wheeze out.
Her surname means God’s Love in the old tongue…is it fate that the Angel
shall save god’s love? (I continue to muse this thought to myself to this day.)
I did not close the
mask over her face; I remember staring into her eyes, those bright blue pools,
swirling with a maelstrom of life, full of love that would be forever un-shared.
I remembered taking a moment to lightly stroke her face, it was then I had
realized that she was running out of time. Her eyes were glazing over, and her
breathing was becoming sporadic. I remembered not taking any joy into what I
usually felt was the best part of extracting a soul. I summoned my blade, which
at the tip contained the phylactery crystal, which could hopefully absorb the
soul for me.
I raised it slowly, and
whispered softly, "one, two, and three…" then, silence. I remembered
looking down, my dagger glowed a faint purple as the child’s body faded into
dust.
I broke the ruby off of
the blade, letting the bleeding sword dissipate in thin air. I cradled the
glowing gem in my hand, had I done it? Of course I did! But this was only a
small essence of what I needed. The ruby was warm to the touch, I could almost
feel it beating like a heart, and I felt.....happy? No.....it was more of a
"free" feeling, like chains had unbound themselves to me. I
felt...her. I was then brought back to the present.
(All writings and the characters are owned by me and do not redistribute without permission).
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