Mirror Soul

Chapter Five: Exposition

Bruce was led to a large, modern kitchen and sat at a table. He studied the four strangers carefully.  Mr. Safen sat across the table from Bruce with his fingers intertwined. Next to his mysterious history teacher was the woman in the nightgown who had her hands folded in her lap staring at Bruce with an odd intrigue. Nix, the one who attacked him, was in the fridge trying to find another ice pack for his manhood. 

Bruce couldn't help the smile that came over his face as he watched the big oaf.

And Layva was leaning on the door, arms crossed, looking uninterested as usual. Finally Mr. Safen cleared his throat and began speaking.

“Before we get started Bruce, can you tell us what happened-”

“No no no!” The boy interrupted. “You are the ones who are supposed to be explaining things to me.” The large man sighed and ran his fingers through his brown hair.

“Yeah okay...where to start?”

“Rolist!” The woman next to him said in an annoyed tone.

“Okay, okay Angie! It’s just weird explaining something like this.” He responded.

“Unammed! It's three in the morning.” Layva said with a groan. “If one of you don’t explain it then I’ll give the short version.

“I can give him the rundown.” Nix said while closing the fridge, a new ice pack in hand. “If we can throw down!” He gave Bruce a threatening look.

The boy rolled his eyes. “How ‘bout i throw you down the stairs.”

“Ok enough!” The woman said exasperatedly.

Everyone in the room fell silent. Guess we know who the boss is around here. Bruce thought to himself.

“I’ll explain.” She focused her attention on him. “Mr. Kopierce, you know what a human soul is, correct?”

Bruce nodded hesitantly. “Yeah, it’s like the essence of a person's life, or something like that.”

The woman nodded back, a small smile tugging on her face.

“Close, but not exactly. Every living human has a soul, and every soul has power.” She paused for effect before continuing. “And some people can harness the power of their own soul to do things that are unique… they use this power to do things that people without knowledge of how their souls work would call… magical.”

She closed her green-blue eyes and when she opened them they were a glowing gray color. “And just how every person is different, so are their souls, which just means that people can have different abilities.”

The woman held up her hand and, in a flash of gray light, formed a see-through butterfly of the same color. 

Bruce stared at it, astonished, as the creature fluttered it wings and flew from its creator’s hand. It spun in circles above their heads.

“These abilities are called mystics.”

The butterfly flew down to Bruce and he held his finger out. The creature landed gently and rested its wings.

“However…”

The butterfly vanished in another flash of gray light.

“Mystics, and soul energy alike, attract monsters that feast off of them. Soul energy is the monsters' only source of food and they have a way of sensing strong, isolated and wavering souls.”

Bruce stared into the woman’s glowing gray eyes looking for any sign of lie or deception. He found none.

“Only two things protect our world from these monsters.” She continued. “The first is the fact that they… can’t get here easily. And the second thing…”