Endless Soul

by MajorFubar

Summary:

Kris ponders the intentions of the strange soul that has come to command them. Why is it being so nice, why does it care? Susie barges in with a scheme to get the old bunker door open. What's back there, and why do all the adults seem just as confused as they are? And while both answers come from the same source, they only lead to more questions. And more problems.

Notes:

Hello, this is the first piece of fiction I've shared in a long time, so do keep in mind the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing. I've written a lot but just never published it. I'm putting myself out there and seeing what sticks. Constructive criticism is welcome. [[ Heart-shaped object emoji ]]

Chapter 1: The Door in the Woods

Kris had a weakness for Saturdays. No school. No Church. Just a lazy day playing games with their brother and maybe exploring the forest if mom told them to get out of the house.

Instead, they were sitting in their room, staring down a small, floating soul stuck in a birdcage. It had stopped trying to escape, it now just sat there, ‘staring’ back. It was almost cute when it wasn’t telling them what to do.

They knew that they should probably hate it.

But they couldn’t bring themselves too. Not completely. It subjugated their will, sure, but it made life interesting, and they didn’t really have much going on in their lives. Not after Asriel left.

The birdcage had originally been home to a bluebird Berdly had given Noelle when she was little. The bird was long gone and stealing the cage had been easy. They simply sat there, floating. It used to try and break out, it didn’t anymore.

The sigh was involuntary. They wondered if it could hear them. They hated the sound of their voice, like dragging a cinder block over gravel. Probably from underuse, but oh well.

“Do something interesting if you can understand me.” They didn’t expect it to work.

Sure enough, it did a little flip.

“Umm, up and down for yes, left and right for no?” It bobbed up and down.

“Okay. Are you here to replace me?” No. They weren’t sure what they expected, even if it were here to replace them why wouldn’t it lie.

“Yeah, bad question, umm… Yeah. This whole yes or no thing, isn’t really gonna work. Maybe I should get you a Ouija board. It’ll be funny watching you push around the little pointer. Maybe go further, make you a little harness and leash. That’d be funny.” Its nervous quivering was cathartic.

Both jumped at the loud knocking. Toriel’s footsteps moved to the door and her voice was joined by Susie’s. Kris jumped up to move the cage to the closet. The heart quivered and jolted, trying to make the bumpy ride less aggressive.

Kris barely got the cage hidden under a blanket before Susie kicked the door open.

“Kris. Do you remember when we entered the dark world for the first time?” She seemed frantic.

“Yes, why wo…”

“We entered the storage closet and came out in the unused classroom, right?” She began to shake them.

“Yes, why are…”

“So, we traveled through a wall, right?” The shaking got more aggressive.

“A few, why?”

Instead of answering she picked them up and carried them under her arm.

“Have a nice time Kris,” Toriel made no attempt to stop her kids' kidnapping. “Be back by curfew!”

Susie made no attempt to put them down as they walked through town. No one gave them more than a passing glance. Had this really become such a common occurrence that they didn’t even respond anymore?

Passing through the whole town on the main road, but continuing south, there was only one possible destination.

Berdly and Noelle were both waiting near the door. They could hear him monologuing about everyone’s probable grades on the group projects. Of course, he was suggesting that he and Noelle would get the highest marks. Surprisingly though he put Kris and Susie in second. Maybe he really had changed his mind. Berdly and Noelle had confronted them the day before about the dark world and they had been forced to come clean.

Susie placed them on their feet. And handed them the knife she must have palmed from their kitchen. She stood up straighter and grinned, but, before she could speak, they interrupted her.

“Susie, I don’t think your plan is gonna work.” She turned towards them with a moment of shock before that familiar anger came out.

“What do you mean? I haven’t even told you the plan yet.” Noelle gently giggled while Berdly raised an eyebrow.

“I’ve only ever opened a dark fountain once, and that was inside, at night. We’re out in the forest, in a clearing, in the morning. The sun is just behind some trees.” This plan seemed both stupid, unlikely to work, and dangerous. They were more than onboard, they just wanted to give the others a chance to back out instead of getting dragged into this by Susie’s lack of forethought.

“Yeah, I guess, but like, this might work. And don’t you wanna know what’s back there. That door has been locked forever. The dark world is our best chance of seeing what’s inside. It let us walk through walls man! How’s some stupid door gonna stop all four of us?” She was really pushing for this, huh. Well, no harm in trying they supposed.

Berdly spoke up next. “It would be fascinating to see beyond, but from what you’ve told me about your adventure, didn’t you travel through a door from castle town to the card kingdom? What if that was just you traveling down the hallway and into the unused classroom?”

Huh, they hadn’t thought of that.

“But Berdly.” Noelle came to the rescue. “Wasn’t the unused classroom locked? They may have gone around but they still got through a locked door.”

He put his wing under his chin in an exaggerated pose of deep thought. “Yes, I locked it myself. But who’s to say that the door won’t be locked in the dark world too? This plan has too many unknowns.” He changed from a pose of comically pensive thought to boisterous bravery. “The only way to know for certain is to explore this dark world and try to open it anyway. Consider me ‘In’.”

“Don’t get me wrong Susie. I agree with you, I wanna try, but let’s temper our expectations a bit. This probably isn’t gonna work.” They ignored Susie looking up the definition of ‘temper’ in exchange for looking to Noelle. She was looking back and forth between Kris and Berdly’s expectant looks. She sighed.

“Yeah, I guess I’m in to. It’ll be exciting, but if we do it now, it might not work. Kris might be right; it might be too bright out. How about we all tell our parents we’re going to have a sleepover at my house, and I tell my mom I’m going to sleep at Kris’s. We can all get ready then come back here when it's darker.” Her smile was always infectious. And she had a good point.

“I concur wholeheartedly, Noelle. An excellent plan! I’ll bring a blanket and some snacks. That way if it doesn’t work, we can just have a camp out instead.” Before waiting for a response, he jogged off.

“I hope he doesn’t bring any of that ‘low carb’ crap his dad eats. It's garbage.” Susie’s face scrunched at the memory.

“You’ll still eat it.”

“Well, yeah! Free food is free food, don’t mean I don’t get to complain about it. I’ll bring two flashlights and a lighter. A campfire might be nice. Hey, Noelle.”

She snapped to attention, “Y-yeah!”

“Text Nerdly and tell him to buy some smores stuff from the store on his way here. Does your family still have those tents?” The longer she talked about this plan the more excited she got. Kris wondered if she even remembered the dark world plan.

“Yeah, I will, and we do. Kris can help me smuggle them out without my parents, er, mom noticing.” Susie didn’t notice Noelle’s face fall because she’d already turned and started walking towards town. But not before turning and sending a thumbs up and a wink Noelle’s way.

“Great, this is gonna be a blast. See you, nerds, later.” Noelle finished her swooning as Susie turned the corner out of sight.

“Let’s head to my house first, I gotta grab something.”

 

The smores were gone and the snacks had mostly been eaten. The time had come. It wasn’t going to get much darker than this.

Kris held the knife in their hand, summoned their will, and plunged it down. The darkness poured forth like liquid past them. The torrent almost felt like it was going to lift them up and launch them, but their feet stayed firmly on the ground.

The pure, bubbling dark was replaced with a chilling silence. Kris looked to their friends.

“You can open your eyes now. It worked.” Their voice felt muffled by the oppressive feeling of this dark world. It didn’t feel like the cool, darkness of an undiscovered and abandoned room, but instead like the oppressive cold of an empty tomb. It wasn’t helped by the cold of their metal armor.

They all looked at their new surroundings. Where there had been a sparse forest of short, stubby trees, there was now an endless forest of giants. The massive trees had diameters greater than any of the houses in Hometown and reached higher than skyscrapers. Their bark was a dull gray like they had turned to stone while still standing. There was no moon in the parts of the sky that could be seen through the branches, nor any stars or clouds, just an empty void.

Standing out from the trees was the building. It appeared to be a cathedral, but, like the trees, it was far too large. It was covered and surrounded by long, flowing buttresses and its larger-than-life doors were flanked by equally obscene stained-glass windows. The only buildings larger had been Card Castle and the Queen’s Mansion. And even then, it wasn’t by much. The tall spires reached up towards the empty sky in layers upon layers of smaller arches, each with a statue standing beneath it with a hand held up as if to hold the keystone in place.

“It’s like Anor Londo, but, here, and, and I can go inside!” Berdly was the first to snap from his amazed daze.

“I’ve seen pictures of old Gothic Cathedrals, but it’s a lot different in person. This doesn’t look like anything from the other dark worlds. This place feels. Older.” Kris couldn’t help but agree with Noelle’s observation. This place felt different. Wrong. Yet, familiar.

“Well, I don’t see anything else around, we’ve only really got one choice of direction. Let’s go.” Susie was never one for standing around admiring the architecture. Kris had to drag Noelle and Berdly away from their spots, their eyes still locked open in awe at the sheer scale of it all. Even with how far the building was from them it still dominated the view. It would be a walk to get there. They felt the urge to fill the silence.

Kris remembered where they had felt this before. “When I was little, I had this recurring dream-nightmare-thing.” The others all turned to look at them, confused by their tone. They didn’t seem nostalgic, or afraid, or even confused, only a calm assurance, a statement of fact.

“I would be standing in a long hall, with light coming in through the windows on either side. Painted in the reds and yellows of a setting sun, yet the light came from both sides equally. The windows were all stained-glass depictions of events I didn’t recognize yet felt like I remembered. The place felt like home, yet horribly alien.

I was never alone in those dreams. There were always people there with me, talking to me, even when I was too young to understand what they were talking about. The weird part was that they weren’t monsters. They were humans, like me, but most of them didn’t look anything like me. If it was a dream, then how did I create humans in my head that didn’t look like any human I had ever seen before. My mom always thought they were people I must have seen as an infant before she adopted me.

Only three of the seven ever spoke, the other four just stood at a distance, silent and still. It took me a long time to realize that they were dead. That only the three that ever spoke were the only living ones. I don’t remember what they looked like, or what they sounded like, or what they said, but I remember how they felt. Like old friends.”

“Can you stop talking, you’re freaking me… Ah… Berdly out!” Susie’s voice was gently trembling. Berdly was noticeably trembling. Noelle had on a face of conviction.

“I’m not frightened!! I’m just cold! That’s all! It’ll take more than some made-up mumbo jumbo about dreams to make me back down from this. Were in this together, right?” He tried to sound confident. Kris wasn’t buying it.

“You think you’ve been here before?” Noelle’s eyes were locked on the large, circular window over the central door. It depicted seven souls: Purple, Cyan, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red as the largest in the center. She felt like she was missing something. Like there was something she’d forgotten.

“Maybe. My mom always did tell me that I used to sleepwalk. But how do you sleepwalk into a dark world? That’d be… Not the weirdest thing to ever happen to me.”

That walked to rest of the way to the door in silence. Maybe filling the void wasn’t worth it.

The door was left open. Not enough to make it obvious, but enough for any wandering passerby to squeeze in. Not that one would be able to open the door if it was closed, the whole place screamed of disrepair. The inside was just as they remembered it.

Well, not quite as they remembered it. The marble floor was covered in a web of cracks, and some of the windows had been taken out by piercing branches. And the hall was longer than they remembered.

The warm light spilling in through the unbroken windows was contrasted by seeing that it was still dark out of the broken ones. But what make Susie and Berdly tense was the length. The hall seemed to go on forever. Its columns and windows repeated into the distance. Not fog or darkness just shriveled up and disappeared, like a plane disappearing into the daytime sky. Impossible.

Noelle couldn’t get enough of this place. It was a ‘real’ life version of those impossible spaces she’d read in books before. A truly endless hallway. The windows all depicted different scenes. Some of battle, some of congregations of humans and monsters, some of quiet moments with infants or the sick and dying. But all had the same thing at their center. A human soul. Beneath each window, a box, made of burnt, black stone. Embedded in the top, a collage of gems in the shape of a soul with stones of a matching color to the hearts on the windows. Graves.

That walk down the hall was long and silent. But after a short while, and long before making any sort of progress towards the end of the hall, the light coming through the windows began to dim. In front of and behind them, the infinite hall was consumed by flowing darkness making the place go from too big to too small. They heard a gentle, high-pitched giggle from the dark.

“I’ve changed my mind, I’m not that curious.” Berdly didn’t sound happy. No one got a chance to reply to him.

“Hiya Kris. It’s nice to see you again!” They stepped into the dimly lit area at the edge of the light from the windows. They couldn’t have been older than 8. Their hair was cut the same way as Kris’s except that it was shorter in the front allowing their eyes to be seen, and it was a lighter, almost red color. Their cheeks had a perpetual rosiness going with a multitude of freckles. Their eyes were a bright crimson and their mouth pulled up into an almost impossible grin. But there was no doubting it, they were human. Or had been human. They were slightly translucent and had a faint red outline. A yellow and green sweater and torn brown shorts with red stains on them. They held in one hand a familiar heart-shaped locket, and in the other a stained knife. “Well, see you while you’re awake. And won’t, you know, forget everything we talk about.”

“Um,” Kris didn’t really know what to say. “It’s nice to see you too?”

“I assure you; it is not nice to see them again.” Another human stepped from the darkness. This one was tall. Almost taller than Asgore if they had to guess. He could be called a bean pole; he had no visible muscle or fat. But the term ‘bean pole’ implies a certain lack of both physical and emotional strength. He did not give this impression.

He wore an expression of calm indifference, yet the eyes behind his glasses seemed to be studying them. He wore a long dark gray trench coat with patches on the shoulders embroidered with four gold stars. Under the coat could be seen military fatigues straight out of a history book but the taught pull of the fabric belied a thin yet present musculature underneath. Pinned to the shirt, over his heart, was a metal of a strange purple hue, with a golden heart within the circle that made up its body. On the other side of his chest, a large collection of smaller metal bands seemed to interconnect into one large metal piece of various colors. His dark slacks led down to large, combat boots covered in mud. He too was partially translucent. Outlined in yellow, with a bright yellow soul burning in his chest.

“Aww, come on Justice, I was just gonna have a little fun. You never let me threaten anyone anymore. What’s the point of being undead if I don’t get to do ghost stuff?” Their voice was mocking, and their smile was smug.

“First off, we aren’t undead, second off, for you ‘Ghost stuff’ is torture and murder. Which would be unproductive and unfair, none of these children have done anything to you.” His tone was that of an annoyed teacher. His eyes never left Kris.

“They haven’t done anything to me YET.” They put their hands behind their back and wobbled on their heels like a little kid. “And the closest possible explanation for what we are is undead unless you have something better, genius. Or is your head so high blood can’t get to it?”

“There’s no reason to be rude yet, Determination. They have only just arrived.” Another stepped from the dark. She was only an inch or so taller than Noelle. And where the other humans seemed threatening in one way or another, her tone was almost kind. Almost. It had a strange iciness to it, that gave the impression that she was forcing niceness out of a perceived necessity. She was wearing a loose-fitting jacket over a V-neck cut tight shirt. While the man looked to be in his mid to late 40’s she looked to be only 25 to 30. She had on tight nylon pants leading down to some form of dance shoe. She had a guitar case strapped to her back. Some sort of performer? She was outlined in blue, with a matching, burning soul.

“Integrity, Justice has been here forever; he didn’t just arrive.”

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean him, be as rude as you want to him. Just try to accommodate our guests. It’s not very often we get to speak to others.”

“Yeah, but what’s the point of speaking to others if we don’t even get to enjoy it?” They were starting to whine.

“We do get to enjoy it.” Justice had a small smile on his face. “You don’t. Don’t say we when you mean I.” They stuck out a tongue at him.

It was made apparent how nervous Kris and the others were when Berdly’s exclamation made them all jump. Not that Susie would have ever admitted to it.

“I know who you are!” Berdly’s excited tone shifted to slight nervousness as all eyes fell onto him. “I… I mean, I just remembered where I recognize you two from. You’re two of the Seven Sages. The ones who ended the war between humans and monsters. The book I read didn’t list your names, only your faces.”

“Yes, well, when you live as long as we have, names start to lose meaning.” Justice’s smile turned from smug to a strange form of pride. “Though it feels good to be remembered. I think faces are more appealing than names anyway. Thank you for remembering mine, son. It’s kind of you.”

Berdly had never had a fatherly figure praise him and didn’t really know how to react, so he simply froze.

“Wait, that story is true? I thought it was made up.” Susie was trying to hide her confusion. It wasn’t working.

“True-ish. There are a lot of conflicting details. No one knows the specifics of what happened, but it did happen. You can see the accords that were signed afterward if you visit the capitol.” Noelle was still staring at the two larger humans. Now that she looked at them again. Yeah, they were two of the sages.

“Okay,” Kris’s voice was barely above a whisper, “What are you guys talking about?”

“The monster accords were…” Noelle was cut off by Berdly’s enthusiasm. He was still riding high from the praise.

“The Seven Sages were an eclectic group of humans who could perform magic by instinct. There were only seven at any given time and whenever one would die another would be born, and the remaining six would go out in search of them.” Berdly had closed his eyes to tell his tale, so he missed the look on Kris’s face. Humans could use magic? It was just some lost art. That seemed, unfair.

“But after the accord, they all disappeared. No one knows for certain what happened to them, but it’s suspected that foul play was involved. The human leaders didn’t like that the Sages had put a stop to their war and the Monster leaders were offended by the Great Seal. All we do know is that they haven’t been seen in almost 100 years. But their involvement ended the human-Monster war dead in its tracks.” Seeing that Berdly’s rant was over Noelle took her turn to explain.

The disdain in her voice was palpable. “And they had good reason. The Great Seal took away magic for everyone BUT the seven of them. Humans, Monsters, animals that used it naturally, all gone. A whole part of monster culture wiped away by them.”

“Now that’s a little unfair.” Justice’s voice had gained an edge. “It was the only compromise that everyone hated equally. All the others were far more one-sided. Would you prefer being trapped underground? Or having the pointless bloodshed continue?” Noelle looked away.

“Yes!” Determination seemed elated at the idea of bloodshed. Integrity shut them up with a hand over their mouth.

“And we all gave up magic after that anyway.” Integrity locked her other hand under their jaw to avoid being bitten. “If others had to go without, we would too. We only kept our magic in case we needed to break the Seal. It was all in good faith. Or as close as one can get to that. I’m sorry if we’ve wronged you, it was not our intention, we only strived for peace.”

“All soldiers strive for peace, those who don’t are not soldiers, merely barbarians.” Justice’s face when from the sort of stern honesty you’d see on the face of a grandpa who is 100% convinced their advice was earth-shattering to the face of a cheeky troublemaker. “Speaking of barbarians, why not change into one of your more agreeable incarnations. Less likely to scare away our guests.”

Determination has finally managed to escape Integrity’s clutches by excessive use of their saliva. “You and I both know that he’ll just spend the whole time saying sorry, offering them tea he can’t make cause he’s a ghost, and then refuse to let me have the rains back because he’s a bitch ass motherf…” The rest of their sentence was muffled by Integrity’s, now gloved, hands.

“Wait, but, if this is a dark world, and you all know magic, could you teach me how to do it?” Taking a step closer, Kris tried to hide the desperation in their voice. They failed.

All three of the ghosts looked at each other with unreadable expressions. “We can’t teach you magic. At least any magic you don’t already know.” Justice sounded almost as disappointed as Kris felt.

Determination spoke with a kindness they had never displayed before. “Each soul color can only learn soul magic of the correct color, just like with monsters.”

Integrity interrupted, “Monsters have alignments, not colors, but it’s the same concept.”

“Whatever, anyway, souls of Determination can’t cast magic in the same way the others can. Guys do your thingies.” As an example, Integrity lifted her arms up and snapped her fingers. All the other souls turned blue before they gently began to float. She brought her arms back down and they all fell and felt like they were being pressed towards the floor. And they felt too cold. She snapped again and everything was fine.

Justice lifted a hand, and with a small flick of his finger launched a fireball over the younger people’s heads. It hit the roof with a boom. He breathed in before exhaling bright yellow flames up into the air like a dragon.

“See?” Determination didn’t look phased at all while Kris and company all had varying expressions of shock. “But for you and me it works differently. But again, as Justice said, there’s nothing we can teach you that you don’t already know.”

“THAT WAS MAGIC! THAT WAS SO COOL. CAN YOU TEACH ME THAT?” Susie’s shouting was far too close to Kris’s ear. The ghosts responded to their parties’ questions and advice about magic and its forms, but they weren’t paying attention. They felt like they were missing something. Then it hit them.

“You said you had nothing more to teach me.”

“Yes.” They wanted to rub that smug smile off the red ghost's face.

“That could only be the case if I already know what you know.”

“Yes.” Integrity had the face of a mother watching her child ride a bike for the first time.

“But I didn’t learn it from anywhere.”

“Yes.” Justice looked like he was reevaluating them.

“So, I must know how to do it instinctually. But Berdly said that only Sages know how to do it by instinct. Am I one of you?”

The three ghosts only smiled in response.

“Wait, but if you three are sages then why are you so young?” It was clear Susie was struggling to keep pace with the conversation. The ghost of Determination didn’t seem offended.

“When a Sage dies, we return to the Temple of the Seven Souls as a ghost of how we were when we died so we can advise the next generation of sages and wait for our turn.” That elicited a frown from everyone.

“Oh… I’m sorry, I guess, for, like, bringing it up.” Susie was scratching the back of her neck to hide the fact she was looking away.

“It’s not that big of a problem. I don’t really hold a grudge. Plus, death is just a part of life. I’ve had way more fun being dead than when I was alive. Can’t have hunger pains as a ghost.”

“Um,” Noelle took a step forward. “Turn to do what?”

“Reincarnate.” Both older ghosts slapped a hand into their foreheads in response to the youngest's blunt answer. The three monsters all gasped in confused shock. Kris felt another piece fit into place. They had a bright red soul in their chest, and the red ghost had none.

“That does explain why there were only ever seven at a time,” Berdly placed a wing under his chin in thought. “It was only ever seven of you. Just, the same seven repeatedly. But that means that Kris isn’t a new sage, just one of you was born again. Kris that’s so cool… I mean, it makes you slightly cooler than you were.” Kris raised an eyebrow at the strange praise.

“But, if you creeps can just come back, why did Nerdly say you disappeared?”

“Because while I, the soul of Determination can reincarnate on my own, the other six need to go in order. Fuck if I know why, they just do.” Determination pointed over their shoulder and as if materialized by their will the bunker door appeared. Around yet behind the door 4 more ghosts formed from the darkness. Green, Purple, Cyan, and Orange all remained motionless. “Four of us are trapped on the other side of the door so they can’t come back, meaning that the cycle is broken for now. For them anyway, it doesn’t really matter.”

None of them really had anything to say, so Kris took their turn. “Do you understand what’s happening to me? Is that what that other soul is? An Angel?”

The souls seemed confused, before taking on a more sympathetic look. “Kris, as souls of determination, our magic is the most powerful, but also the most subtle. They get to flatten people or shoot fireballs, but us, we warp time and space. Those little save points, other humans can’t see them, just you. And that angel you summoned, you summoned them because you wanted or needed help. If you truly wanted them gone, they wouldn’t be allowed to remain.”

“Save points, like, in a video game? That’s incredible! Imagine what you could do with infinite chances. Truly cheat death!”

“Kris, is that how you always knew what to do? You’d, like, done it before? Is that how we beat Jevil?”

“Is that how you always got into my house, Kris? You used your superpower to jump scare me?”

Kris supposed that was all true, but it didn’t make them feel better. They’d been using magic the whole time and had never known? Why did that feel worse?

“Kris, why didn’t you use that power to get straight A’s? You could pass me up as number 1, er, 2 in-class easily? Please don’t! But still, you could, why don’t you?”

“I guess I just never cared to.”

The three ghosts all spoke in sequence.

“Kris, the world doesn’t care about your Integrity.”

“And sometimes it feels like it has no place for Justice.”

“But it doesn’t have a choice, my friend, but to bend to our Determination.”

“We’ve watched societies rise and fall; eons have passed that we all remember in almost perfect detail. We’ve built empires and destroyed legions. That door will rust away and cease to be, and we will remain. That was the gift the angels gave us, to keep balance.” Justice didn’t say this like a brag, he said it like a statement of fact.

“No one has ever bested us in a way that matters. We just come back more alive, prepared, and knowledgeable than before.” Integrity spoke with a reassuring calmness.

“Even something like this is only temporary in the scheme of things. Nothing really matters, but the things that you make matter.”

The others kept asking questions, well, Berdly and Susie kept asking questions. Kris and Noelle were too lost in thought. Eventually, they decided to leave. Just go back the way you came they said. It was almost dawn by the time they woke up. Kris didn’t feel like talking to their friends anymore, so just went home without saying goodbye. They had some questions that needed to be answered.

 

The heart was still in its cage, but instead of floating it was resting at the bottom, a slightly duller red that gently pulsed, like it was sleeping. They shook the cage.

“Did you know I was special?” Yes.

“Have you helped people like me before?” Yes.

“Did it go well for them?” It didn’t move at first, eventually, it moved in a circle.

“You don’t know?” Yes.

“You didn’t stick around long enough to see if they were ok? Just let your puppet fall when you thought they didn’t need you anymore.” It sunk down as if cowering from the words. Then gently bobbed. Yes.

“So, you just take away people’s control, fix whatever you think their problem is, and then fuck off? How would you know if that’s ever worked before?” They didn’t want an answer, they just wanted to vent. They could still hear Spamton’s story in their heads. His puppeteer had made him a big shot, and then abandoned the puppet to rot, thinking its job was done. Would they be the same? When the angel left would all their friends abandon them? Would it all amount to nothing more than a diversion? They didn’t want it to. Their own soul glowed a little brighter.

But venting wouldn’t get them anywhere. “Can you make me a promise?” Yes.

“Before you leave me, let’s make sure things can’t go wrong when you’re gone, ok?” A very enthusiastic yes. Maybe this creature wasn’t so bad after all.

They opened the cage door, and let it return to them.

Chapter 2: A Faustian Bargain

Noelle faced the imposing door. She had always thought that if she knew what was behind it, she wouldn’t be afraid anymore. That didn’t come to pass. Their little mountain community housed a prison built to contain immortal beings as close to gods as she’d ever see, beings that claimed to commune with the Angel. She was friends with a reincarnated soul of one of those immortal beings and yet only she seemed to find that fact alarming or creepy. Kris claimed to have no real memory of their previous lives, only a sense of familiarity with events they shouldn’t know about, and some skills they don’t remember learning. Muscle memory with no practice.

But the thought of these beings being within reach had stirred ideas in her head, ideas that had been dormant for a long time. They had told them that they could come to the temple anytime they wanted, all they needed to do was knock. She had a question for them, and she was going to get an answer.

The door was cold, even in the summer, but with winter approaching it was frigid, but she knocked anyway. Creeping darkness spread out from the edges of the door, slowly filling her entire field of vision until only the dark remained, and as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she was back in the strange forest. It was still so quiet. Even though she was now in her padded dress that should have kept her warm, she still shivered.

The door was still ajar, more so now that Susie had tried to open it the rest of the way on their way out. The hall was still warmly lit. Three ghosts waited for her. They didn’t seem surprised.

Integrity spoke before she’d even reached them. “Now know, we can’t hurt you, and we won’t try, but I want you to ask this question as carefully as possible.”

Noelle froze. She’d spent the last three days trying to get the right wording for her request. She needed to win them over and she was sure she had figured out how. Now that she was face to face with them all that thought had gone out the window.

“Do you know how to save my dad?” She winced and hoped the gods before her would feel merciful.

“Yes. For as long as Monsters have existed, they have been Falling Down. Some in the past have found temporary fixes. Some even managed to cure it. But only one ever found a permanent fix. But he’s long dead, and his technique is lost to time.” Justice had a small smile on his face. Noelle had seen that smile before. Berdly wore it whenever he knew something she didn’t. It looked better on Berdly.

“How did you know what’s wrong with him?”

“If it was anything else, you wouldn’t feel the need to ask us.” Justice wasn’t smiling anymore, now just a somber frown.

“Do you remember how to do it? Could you tell me?”

“We do. But it’s not a process that can be so easily explained. Plus, if we’re going to take time out of our busy schedule of doing nothing, you’ll have to do something for us too.” Determination had a sneering voice. It reminded her of when they were kids and Kris had been angry and wanted to feel better by messing with Berdly. Saying mean things in a mean voice in a childish attempt to feel better by making someone else feel worse. She also hated that it was working.

“What do you want me to do?”

“As appealing as being stuck with these two until the door rusts away is, I think, if we worked together, we could get it open a lot sooner.” Ah, so they wanted the door open. That was better than what she thought their price would be.

“Ok, I’ll do it. How do I save him?”

“I don’t know if you have enough time to save him on your own. But it would go much faster if we did it. But alas, we are but ghosts. Of course, you, being a monster, could absorb one of our souls. We’d get to pilot you around and you’d be more akin to a puppet than a person, but we’d have the power to get it done. Are you willing to give up your agency to help the people you love?” Integrity didn’t look happy, or sad, just resigned. Someone in a hard spot making the only decision they felt they could. Noelle felt the same way.

Noelle couldn’t help the thoughts. She’d always hoped someone would take the reins for her. She can’t be a failure if she had no say. She couldn’t blame herself if it was never her call to begin with.

“Yes… I am.” Maybe she could finally fix her problems if she was stronger?

“Unfortunately,” Justice lifted a hand to his lapel. “A monster can only absorb souls aligned with their own soul color unless that color is Red, but yours is not. Meaning you can only be an appropriate vessel for Integrity, but I know the process better. After all, the good doctor always shared his discoveries with his victims. And being the only willing one, I was the only one lucid enough to remember. Knowledge is power. Plus, both of us will be needed for the cure's creation.”

“So, we can’t do it anyway? Then why even lead me on? Why get my hopes up at all?”

“Because, little doe, while you can’t be a vessel for a soul of Justice like mine. That doesn’t mean no one can.” He moved the hand from his lapel, it now had a blue feather sticking from between his fingers. “So, tell me. Are you willing to take away another’s agency to save the one you love? Are you willing to stoop as low as we have, to get what you want? What price are you willing to pay?”

Noelle didn’t have a doubt in her mind. He’d understand. He didn’t have a choice.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Seven Sages