Shadow Souls

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Makaria: A God; a collector of special souls.

"Special as in...?" I ask.

"If I had to guess I would say maybe souls of the gifted. You know, like those with superpowers."

"How can you be sure?"

"I can't really, but if it means something else, then why is it following you?"

"That doesn't make sense though, because if it wanted superpowers then why isn't it after you too?"

"Maybe it just doesn't know about me yet," she shrugs. Well, that's not very comforting. Now every time Paige is out of my sight, I will be worrying about what could be out there. I can't lose another friend because of this thing. Whatever it is.

"It might answer one thing though," she adds.

"What's that?"

"Maybe that's why Tyler is still here. I mean why his soul is still here. If he wasn't 'gifted', then it explains why it wouldn't take him."

"Maybe," I say.

I'm not really sure about that though. Just because this thing didn't take his spirit, or soul, or whatever, doesn't fully explain why it's still here. Even if he didn't get collected, shouldn't he still have gone... somewhere?

Once again, I am left with more questions than I have answers.

"Hey look at this!" Paige exclaims snapping me out of my revive. "It says here that Makaria is actually a type of siren that was cursed to work in the underworld for Hades."

"What? I've never heard that version of Greek mythology before."

"Neither have I," she says.

We continue to read everything we can but find no mentions of anything that can explain my milkshake incident. "Well, maybe that was unrelated, or maybe you actually are just remembering it wrong," Paige suggests.

Maybe... But I doubt it. "There is just one more thing that I don't understand," I add. "It says that this thing is supposed to be very powerful. So why hasn't it just killed me yet?"

Paige looks at me confused, like she is just as puzzled by this too. I mean, if taking souls is what this thing does, then I would think I'm pretty easy prey right? I can barely even control my powers. So, what was it waiting for?

So many questions.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back," I tell her, but truthfully, I just feel like I really need to talk to Tyler.

As I make my way through the computers and to the library's restrooms I almost hesitate. What if this thing is real and it does want people with powers, and I am just leaving Paige alone and vulnerable? I remind myself to get a grip and that she is alone all the time and has never been attacked yet. Then I continue to bathroom to summon Tyler. Hoping that when I fill him in on everything we discovered, he won't be too mad at me for doing it.

I check under the doors to make sure the place is empty, then close myself into a stall. Taking a breath, I sit cross-legged on the toilet and begin to call Tyler. As usual it doesn't take long.

"You know it's kind of weird being summoned into a girl's bathroom."

I open my eyes at the sound of his voice. "Yeah, well if anybody comes in you better get your pervy ghost butt out of here," I smile.

"So, what's the emergency?" he asks.

"What makes you so sure there is an emergency?"

"Come on, Alice. You wouldn't call me here if it wasn't. Just tell me what you found."

I fill him, letting everything Paige and I learned come out in a rush. "I'm so sorry Tyler," my voice breaks and I can't control the tears pouring from my eyes.

"What are you sorry for?"

"I'm the reason this happened to you! It was coming after me and you are the one who got hurt. It's all my fault!" I sob.

"Alice it is absolutely not your fault."

"But-"

"No!" he cuts me off. "You didn't ask for any of this. It's not your fault."

I am about to open my mouth to apologize again, when the sound of the bathroom door opening stops me. "Alice are you in here?" Paige calls.

I let out a breath and open the stall door. She looks at me and taking in my red face and puffy eyes, she knows I've been crying.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" she asks in a hurried voice.

"I was just talking to Tyler," I gesture to the space next to me and of course she immediately understands why I had to speak to him.

"Come on, we should go. Let's grab some lunch okay," she suggests.

"Sounds good," I try to force a smile.

"Great, but first," she turns to face where Tyler is standing, "Beat it creep I have to pee," she announces and despite everything I manage to laugh.

Tyler and I both walk out of the bathroom to wait for her, but as soon as he walks by Paige, he turns around to stick out his tongue at her.

"She can't see you, dork! You didn't have to wait till her back was turned," I shake my head.

"I know, I was more waiting to be sure you saw me do it."

"Very mature."

Even during a crisis, I can still count on my friends to lighten the mood.