Beautiful Souls

Chapter Two: Second Sighting

Laughter filled a small cozy looking cabin, a woman with long black hair held a little girl with flowing long blonde hair, her large green eyes twinkling in the faint light of the fireplace. A tall man sat nearby, his glasses glazed with light, a faint smile on his lips. The woman stood with the girl and placed her gently in the man's lap. The girl's cheery expression quickly turned sour, and the laughter that had just filled the house disappeared, replaced by the shrill cry of the baby. The woman walked away, leaving what could only be her husband alone with the crying child.

The man began to panic, he placed his book down quickly and began to bounce the girl on his leg, but her cries just grew louder. He began to whisper to the child, his oddly colored eyes growing dim in the light. The child turned toward him, her teary eyes drying up and the light disappearing. "See, everything is fine...it's okay Merideth..." He smiled coolly. Merideth cocked her head to the side in confusion, too young to understand what had happened, too young to understand why she had been crying, too young to understand how she stopped.

The man sat up again, grabbed his book, and began to read aloud one of his favorite stories to his daughter. "When stars align and the spirits awaken two will be chosen over the rest of humanity to lead them. One a child born of darkness, the other a human of sweet nature. One with the abilities to destroy and sway, the other with the abilities to calm any who will listen and to help anyone in harms way. Only after both are born can the stars aline, only after they are born will the spirits begin to wake. Many don't know but this has all already happened, and it was destined to happen again. For as long as the Earth is whole, for as long as the humans are living, this event will occur. The last time it happened light defeated darkness, not with anger or strength but with calm rational thinking and planning. The darkness could not understand what the light was doing, all darkness knew was anger, fear, strength, and a severe passion for war that was the inevitable downfall of the darkness. All the world can hope for is that the light and dark can live hand in hand or that the darkness is still as narrow minded as before, because if the darkness ever won it would cause the downfall of all you have ever known." When the man finished he looked down at his daughter, who had fallen asleep while listening to her father's sweet voice.

"Why do you like that story so much, Kaynna?" Kaynna's wife called out to him, draping her arms over his shoulder and rubbing her head against his cheek. "It's just so dreary I don't understand how someone as sweet as you can enjoy it."

"Well, my love, never judge a book by it's cover." He answered with a shrug, removed his wife's arms from his neck, placed the book down again, picked up the little girl, and carried Merideth into her small bright yellow room before placing her gently in the crib. "Vanna, why don't you go ahead and go to bed? I'm gonna go feed the cat." Kaynna whispered to his wife. She nodded and walked to their room while he jogged to the kitchen.

He lifted his arm towards the cabinet that held the cat food, immediately a cat with short shaggy looking gray fur jumped onto the counter and mewed to him. "Hey kitty kitty." Kaynna smiled, scratching the cat behind the ear. The cat stayed for a minute, a soft purr rumbling deep in it's chest. Then the cat's ears fell flat against it's head and a hiss escaped it's mouth before it jumped off the counter and scampered off.

"Kitty?" Kaynna called after the cat with a confused frown. He had owned this cat for years and it had never acted like that. "Come here kitty kitty kitty...don't wanna miss dinner do you?" He called after the cat, making clicking sounds with his tongue. But the cat stayed where it was, hidden under a chair, it's back arched and teeth bared. Kaynna frowned, grabbed the bag of cat food and shook some into to small round food bowl that wasn't too far from his feet. While he was pouring the food he heard the cat hiss again, then the fast sound of it's padded feet as it ran from the room into another. Kaynna shrugged, thinking of it as nothing more than old age finally ruining his cat's sweet nature.

Kaynna began to turn, but stopped when he felt another presence in the room, but it was so faint that it could've been anything from a bug to a mouse--there isn't much of a size difference between a large cockroach and a small mouse. But this presence felt more pronounced than either of those; both would have scurried away as soon as they saw Kaynna, but this one stayed in place, and whatever the presence was was staring directly at Kaynna. Kaynna stiffened, ready to attack if there was an intruder, then turned slowly, his eyes growing dim with fear; clouding his normally calm mind. He clenched his fists, then he was in full view of a short see through woman sitting calmly on his counter, her plump lips turned into a sweet smile. "Hello, Kaynna. I have something that you need to hear."

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"Dad...dad I'm cold..." A girl with cropped black hair whimpered to her father. Her father moved the hair that was plastered to her face with sweat away, kissing her burning forehead gently. The girl whimpered again and the father draped yet another blanket over his sick daughter. "Dad...Am...am I going to die...?" she asked quietly, she already knew the answer but she had to hear it from the person she loved most.

The father looked at her solemnly, her mother had died from the same disease. How could he have let the only thing left of her die too? "Yeah...You won't live much longer...But it's okay...dad's right here...I'll make sure it doesn't hurt much longer..I promise it won't hurt..."

"Really...." She coughed loudly before continuing. "Are you sure....? You promise it won't hurt....?" The girl smiled, her father had lied. She knew it would hurt. She had been there when her mother passed. Screaming at the top of her lungs in pain, crying for someone; anyone to help her. Eyes bloodshot, pouring sweat yet still shivering in cold, delirious, scared, blind to the people that were around her. But...Just as the girl's mother slipped away, she grasped her daughter's hand and looked her straight in the eyes. 'I love you. And I know you are destined for great things.' Those were the last words the sick woman had said to anyone, yet they hadn't fixed the girl's fate. Just like her mother, she was dieing, she would never be able to do anything, she would never be destined for greater things.

At least that's what the girl thought as she slipped away from reality not quite gone yet but unable to understand what was going on. All she felt was peace like she had never felt before, though her screaming said otherwise.

Then she could see again, even though he was blurry she could see the faint outline of her father's balding head. "Marin....? Marin...Are you there...?" He called to his daughter, voice wavering in fear of what was to happen.

"Dad...? Dad I love you...don't let this stop you...you still have time...you can still have a family...that's what I want...That's what mom wants...we want you to be happy... so please, always be happy for me..." Then the girl smiled one last time, and she slipped into a deep sleep that she would never wake up from. She slipped into death.