Hopelessy Devoted

Chapter Sixteen: Holding On

We died.

Waking up in my bed after offing myself by drowning, I wake up looking around my empty room. I hadn't been in it in a long time and it is now bare and shut off from the rest of the house. Daddy put in a wall in front of my door and sealed it shut like a tomb. It hurts me to think that he can't accept my death in a positive way. From what I've seen, he's taken down my pictures and trophies and acts as if I was never born. He never speaks of me to anyone. I am nonexistent.

It hurts knowing this. It hurts seeing my family pretend I never was. In fact everyone in town has forgotten me after two whole months. I feel like maybe I never was alive.

Poofing out of my room, I run down stairs and head toward the quarry. The path is over grown as if it too must be erased from the memories. The waning birch trees sway back and forth in the early November breeze and the leaves on the ground shuffle along what little path there is left. I hate feeling abandoned like this. It's only been two months since I died and here I am, abandoned by the living. See if I ever want to help them...

"I knew you'd be here." Looking up, I see Merle sitting astride my large rock, feet kicked out and boots bloodied. I tense when I see him, but soon I calm down- knowing that today he is at his weakest.

"What do you want Merle?" I bite and he sits up, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

"Acting all tough when yer boyfriend isn't around? Hmm, interesting." He flies off the rock and lands beside me. Normally I would flinch or run, but I stay still and hard. "Nothing happened 'tween you too...did it?"

"Yer a shitty actor Merle." I say and he laughs. "What do you want?"

"Oh, it's not what I want. It's what you want."

"And what's that?" I bite once more and he chuckles before holding a little floating blue orb in front of me. It's tiny, about the size of a baseball.

"My brother knows quite a lot about deadies, but even he doesn't know everything about them." He sways around me and seems all cool as he juggles the orb. "What my brother failed to mention to you is that, children- unborn and alive- can stay on this earth if caught properly."

Looking at the tiny blue orb, I don't understand what he means until he comes up and pushes the orb through my stomach. Looking in the water, I can see the orb for a few minutes until it seems to vanish inside of me and I feel a tingle.

"My brother lied to you. He said that all baby souls go straight to heaven. Hmph, the liar failed to mention that spirits have a total of 2 hours to capture it before they ascend to the almighty. He failed to catch yer child's soul on purpose. He had enough time to gather you and it and take you back to yer house. But I guess he just didn't want to waist time with a child when he can have the mother all to himself. Not having to worry about taking care of anything eternally." Merle lays on his side wading in the water. His reflection is drifts from the wind starting to pick up in the quarry. "Yer lucky I came along and gotta ya yer baby back. No need to thank me...yet. I just require a favor from you."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then everything, and everyone you love will suffer greatly for it." Merle's voice becomes sinister as the skies become gray and thick rain clouds start to cry over head.

"Okay. What do you want?"

"I've been hungry for a certain soul for a long time. I just need you to get it for me." He slithers around her and places a hand on her stomach. "You and baby can go fetch it together. I think you both would rather enjoy it. It's from Daddy Dearest who left you here dead."

"Zach."

"Bingo. He has such a lavish and evil soul that I must have a taste. And since the bitterness between you has bled out, I believe that now is the perfect opportunity to...how do I want to put this- take it out." His hands are on my shoulders and he leans in, whispering softly in my ear. "In return, though I already gave you a life time of happiness, I have an extra Life soul here. You can have it. It gives life back to anything or anyone who consumes it."

Showing me a golden orb, my eyes sparkle at the sight of it.

"But- you have to bring me Zach's soul in three days to receive this plentiful gift. And this gift is worth more than anything in Heaven and on Earth. So I best get my soul in that time- or you and yer child's will be mine." He cackles and disappears. My body shakes as rain pours over me. I can feel the soul inside the pit of my stomach move just like a baby would. Why didn't Daryl grab my baby's soul? Why?

Walking back to the house, Daryl is sitting on the porch roof searching for me. When he sees me, he jumps off and comes towards me frantically.

"Are you okay? I came searching for you, but you weren't here. I waited all day. Where were you?" His mouth forms a terribly sad frown and I can't help but feel angry with him.

"I was out okay! God! I didn't know when I died, I had to have a fucking babysitter!" His eyes widen as he hears such harsh language coming from my mouth. In my life, I never swore, seeing it as childish and a sin.

"Beth, what's wrong?"

I shove him and he hits the ground hard, not like he'd feel it anyway.

"You lied to me. You lied to me!" He gets up and I shove him again.

"About what?"

"You said you can't keep a child's soul! That they go to heaven! You have 2 hours to transplant a soul! You could have grabbed my baby's!" I shove him again and he just looks at me, confused and hurt. "I hate you! I hate you!"

I storm off before he can say anything. If Merle wants Zach's soul, he can have it and I can live again with my baby.