Lost Soul

The city was quiet. Dark clouds rolled across the stars, the autumn breeze rustling my dark hair. Our voices echoing in the empty halls of my family home. Where laughter and love were long forgotten.

"Listen to me, James! You have to understand, people are getting hurt." I begged him to understand.

"No! You are the one who doesn't understand! The working class are dying and I am the only one who can stop that. We are dying while those bastards sit and enjoy their crumpets and tea all day." He yelled. James never yelled. Never once at me or in my presence. There was an untold tension on his face. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. An icy shiver ran down my back.

"James, please. You were the hero until you weren't. You are only making things worse. Just listen to me!" That's James, always so stubborn.

"Diana, I said no!" My eyes started to well up with tears. Why wasn't he listening to reason?

"You think I haven't noticed?" My mind raced. What was he going at? "The missing documents from my drawer, the crumpled papers left in your wake." I felt my face turn crimson. A woman must never meddle in the business of men, it was prohibited.

"I love you, Diana. I truly do, but my work is all too important to be ruined by a woman. I'm really sorry my love." I was utterly confused. And then I felt it. The sharp point of a blade piercing the soft skin of my stomach.

"James?"I whispered, "Ja..." My body thumped on the cold, hard, cobblestone courtyard. The wind lashed out in furious whips. Slowly, as my life's blood leaked out, my beautiful bluebird silk dress turned crimson. James and his beautiful emerald eyes looking down at me. I want to reach out, I want to tell him so much, I want... if only I had a few more moments. The world started to dim. I wasn't scared, I wasn't angry. All I felt was regret, regret for meddling in matters far greater than I am. Regret for James, the love of my life now left utterly and hopelessly alone. Goodbye James. The darkness consumed me.

The light! It was so bright. A little breeze caressed my skin. It must be magnificent. Was this truly what heaven was? My eyes flew open and... "James!?"

What was going on? I felt hollow, the wind rushing through me. My mind couldn't wrap around these absurd events. James, he killed me and...I'm back? And now... that's when I saw it. My graying lifeless body on the cobblestone of my family courtyard. The decades-old stone walls looking down upon it. My beautiful bluebird dress, crimson. The pool of blood growing larger. James was there too, he was, he was laughing?

"James!" I tried to scream, he killed me and now he has the audacity to ignore me.

"James! James! James!" I scream until my throat burned. Tears started to well up in my eyes once again, "James." I whispered. I looked down, and for the first time since I awoke, I saw my body. It was transparent, empty, and utterly dead. Was I really? Was I really a ghost? Panic rose high in my ghostly body.

"James please, bury my body. I don't want to live like this. James please, just this one time. LOOK AT ME! " My voice cracked, the wells of tears started streaming down my face.

Something moved in my peripheral vision. I whirled around, wind gushed through me, as if my insides were ripped out. Yet again another reminder of what I now was.

"Siena! Siena?" My dearest friend. What was she doing here, I wanted to hug her, breathe in her floral scent and assure her everything was okay, I would be fine. That she need not worry. All I wanted was to look into her beautiful blue eyes once more, she was stunning. Luscious locks of gold ran down her back. The picture of a goddess.

"The deed is done. Diana is dead." He said as if I was another one of his power-hungry lords needed to be disposed of. Siena looked at my body lying crumpled and graying on the cold hard unforgiving ground as if I was no one. It stung deep down in my transparent body. My heart crumbled and shattered. How much of my life was really real? Who was it who really loved me?

No one.

Hand in hand all I cared for, everything I lived for left my dead body to rot in my family home for the rest of eternity. My body never buried. I never found peace.

The weeks wore on, I neither slept nor ate. I couldn't stop the endless pain. It grew and grew more powerful by the hours until I could barely breathe. I missed my deceased parents, I missed James and Siena, I missed my old life. No matter how fake it was to them, it was real to me. I found the happiness I sought in it.

James only got worse. He was able to pull more funds from Siena and her family than he was previously able to from the fortune I inherited. People were getting hurt, the people he promised to save. And after witnessing all of his actions, all of his plans I was finally able to figure out his desire. He was not doing this for the working class, he wasn't doing this for the poor, he was doing this for his own selfish ego. James wants power, power one can only get from the support of the people. He was going to start a revolution. There was only one thing I could do, he needed to hear some sense from his deceased fiancee.

The streets were dark as if they were getting ready for the unavoidable, full of shadows I used to slip by. I paused at a sudden noise, a pair of footsteps were progressing up the street. I let out a sigh. It was just a lonely couple enjoying the evening quiet. They reminded me so much of a pair I once knew, the endless pain began to resurface once more. I continued on trying to forget the image burned into my eyes, their happy smiles, and their sparkling eyes. They stayed with me, they never left. I found the man many months later, dead along with him was the woman, escaping the darkness that was destined to hit the city.

I hesitated upon the threshold of the family home of James, the memories threatening to take over. I pushed them down and flew through the door. This house. My home. I was ripped from my thoughts by a shriek accompanied by violent sobs. I followed the noise to my former room.

"Siena?" The pain resurfaced, it came spilling out. I sat beside her. She shuddered, feeling the unholy presence.

"It's okay, it's okay." She sniveled as if she heard my words.

"Siena, I forgive you. I'm okay." My heart burned, my insides crumpled, but for Siena, I smiled and stayed. She seemed to sense my presence, sense the old comfort I brought. Slowly sleep claimed her and I stayed. Tears fell in endless waterfalls down my face, I couldn't let her feel this pain, I couldn't leave her to her misery. Yet the man I was after was nowhere to be found. I suppressed the agony once more, I had one last stop I had to make.

The autumn rain pattered on the cobblestone streets and rooftops yet none touched my soft transparent cloud. The city was sleeping, so was my target. Captain Ledger. Sound asleep as he was, I talked and talked and told him everything, as he tossed and turned he heard everything. The following morning I felt as if I made a grand mistake, I was as good as killing him myself. Regret, regret, and regret. The closer he got the more I felt it, all of it, it was agonizing. The door flew open. regret.

"Honey, I'm home..." James never finished his sentence as the arrow was released, piercing his heart in one final blow.

"Goodbye James." My final request to Captain Ledger had been to bury his body, no one should suffer the fate I am destined to. The Assassin lifted his still warm body, James was dead.

My job was done. Siena, safe. James was buried. I let it all out. The pain, the suffering, the regret, the anger. It was too powerful, it wouldn't stop, it ripped out of my control. Panic, what had I done. A wave of darkness rolled over the house, through the streets, and over the city. A searing, mighty, gust of wind crashed into the darkness. Ash was all that was left in its wake. And there I stood looking at all I had done till the end of time. The city was quiet.