The Followings of a Red Beret

Death's Shadow

Peace. That is what I felt inside my soul. Finally. I had this peculiar lingering feeling that I had worked hard to get to this state, and that I had forgotten something important, but it doesn't matter now. I'm happy traveling with Elek. I'm shadow, a fleeting transparent piece of matter, or perhaps energy, that comes and goes as it pleases. I'm not an ordinary shadow, or at least, I don't think I am. Shadows are actually souls. But they're the souls of people that just lived, didn't benefit anyone, didn't harm anyone. The minor bad deeds they committed were balanced out by the minor good ones. They will get reborn, eventually. But first they have to serve out their time being something that resembles their presence in life. Something with no influence. Normal shadows are forced to stay by their solid counterparts by day, holding their form and presence anchored to the ground. But once night comes, they are free to go. Why do you think the shadows get longer as the sun goes down? They are longing to leave their objects, longing to be free. And they are long as the sun comes up because they are reluctantly returning to their solid counterparts. They don't like the sun, or other forms of light. Light symbolizes their captivity. They say a shadow will never leave you. Not true. Us shadows, we want to be free of the human world. We don't mean any harm, we just want to have our own lives. But of course that's impossible. It would tamper with the natural order of life. But since I'm a soul that has not been judged, I don't have a solid counterpart. I can travel wherever I want, whenever I want. But I don't leave Elek's side, because I sense that he did me some huge favor. I can't remember what it was, but it was something very important. Now we are on our way to collect the soul of Mael Renard. Somehow, the name resonates with something in my buried memories, but I can't remember what. I think that I don't want to remember. So I put it out of my mind.

We are almost at our destination, a huge mansion that vaguely reminded me of something I had seen before. First Elek makes himself visible to humans, but he only allows Mael to see him in his true form. To the rest of the staff at the mansion, he looks like a company executive, clad in black. I masquerade as his shadow. 

When we enter the room, Elek takes my red beret, and sits in front of the man at the desk. The golden plaque on the door reads "Maël Renard" then under it "President of Renard - DuCorbeau Finances" The name DuCorbeau seems familiar, but I can't place why. 

The story that Maël seems to be telling sounds boring, so I wander away into a shadowy corner, and start talking to the shadows hiding there. Their stories are interesting, apparently they used to be husband and wife, and had a daughter with the name Elise, just like me. But they got assassinated by the Yazuka. They suspect that Maël is behind the killings. Being shadows here is particularly torturous for them. 

As they finish telling me their story, Maël finishes his. Elek raises his scythe, and slices through Maël's body. The corpse falls back onto the luxurious seat, lifeless, but Elek holds a light blue ball of energy in his hands. He drops it, and it vanishes. I wonder where it went?