Soul Splitters

Lamentations

"I can't believe I left you to just lie there! I am so sorry!" Autumn accepted Josh's apology for what felt like the hundredth time. He carried her down the eight steps from the station and started walking across the stretch to their little house with the big oak door, her blue camisole had torn slightly across her chest, Josh averted his gaze from the bare skin.

"Really, I'm fine put me down." Autumn huffed, "My ankle doesn't even hurt." She didn't bother to include 'because I'm dead' as it seemed no one here wanted to keep acknowledging the fact they were all dead. Josh stopped walking and put her down, more to prove a point than to actually give her an option. Autumn brushed her self down exaggeratedly, "See? No pain whatsoever." She took one Charlie Chaplin step forward to prove herself right when, as soon her her foot hit the ground, an almighty crunch on bone rattled through her eardrums. Autumn collapsed, she let out a huge wail of pain. More by force of habit than because of any actual need. Josh remained statuesque, she drank in the angular shadows as the stations light brushed his face. A nagging voice blurted out some static in the back of her head, Autumn frowned internally and cast it away she didn't wanted to be distracted from studying Josh's Michelangelican features. The nagging voice persisted and Autumn tuned into it turning the static into legible words.

'You are dead. Your wounds can't heal. You are dead. Your wounds can't heal." She felt herself take a sharp intake of breath, which was beginning to annoy her greatly as she had to keep reminding herself that her gasping reflex was redundant. Josh was still standing there, now his hand was extended and he was waiting for her to take it.

She had obviously surpassed the allowed time to respond because now he was calling to her, trying to contact the person inside her subconscious cage. Slowly Autumn moved her hands, Josh froze. Her usual slender finger now felt ape-like and obtuse. They wandered maladroitly down to her waist and lifted her shirt, revealing the massacre that was her stomach. The numerous gashes and wounds had not closed but instead were still wide open. No blood clotted them, they were as clean and sterile as the day Josh had cleaned them. Autumn brushed the rim of a gaping wound with her finger, her disorientation resurfaced and she blacked out.

*

"Come on, come back Autumn!"

"We're losing her!"

"One, two, three, charge. One, two, three, charge. One, two, three, charge."

"Pronounced dead at ... sixteen past eleven."

"No! No! My Baby!"

*

"Reports suggest that a weapon was used and the police are treating the death as suspicious, however there are links to suggest the attack was premeditated."

"We just want to the person who took our Autumn away to come forward. Come forward. So this family can move on with what is left of our lives."

*

Josh hovered over Autumns slumped body. He gathered the little strength he had left and hauled her small frame over his shoulder. He turned slowly to take one more look at where Charlotte had been, her bracelet gripped tightly in his hand, but the sight shocked him. He quickly turned in his heels and ran towards the house.

"Lucifer! Lucifer!" Josh burst into the kitchen, "Lucifer!" He hurtled up the stairs, quickly taking Autumn to her room and settling her on her bed before running towards Lucifer's room. He slowed as he reached the door. He gently squeezed the handle and softly pushed it open. He sank into the darkness. Lucifer was slumped at the foot of his bed, his silhouette highlighted in the orange light created from the doorway Josh stood in, the rest of the room was barely visible in darkness. He batted Josh away limply with his gashed arm, weak grunts emanated from the man. Josh spied Lucifer's other hand held a bottle, a long, clear one with a red label. Vodka? People at the station didn't drink, not because they couldn't but because the idea of a dead person being able to get drunk hadn't occurred to anyone, until now. In the low light Josh suspected that most of the bottle was still full, also it looked like Lucifer's first. There was hope.