Soulless

Looking and Leaping

The bowling alley seemed much too busy for a Saturday night, Rey thought. She had to try and avoid people hanging out in packs, laughing and yelling.

She got to the counter and managed to squeeze her way through one particularly loud group, only to have the cashier glance at her for a quick second before returning to a conversation with his friends.

Rey rang the bell on the counter. "Sorry to disturb your conversation," she said loudly, trying to be heard over the sound of bowling balls hitting the floor and overlapping chatter. "I'm here for Travis."

The cashier nodded and pointed a thumb to a semi-crowded food court.

"He's on break."

Rey nodded her thanks and made her way to where his thumb had pointed.

She scanned the faces sitting at the tables, looked for any that seemed familiar. Eventually she found him, sitting alone at a booth with a basket of fries and a phone. She slid in across from him and stole a fry. Shaking the salt off of it she asked "How are we going go about this 'getting our souls back' business?"

Travis looked up from his phone, leaned back in the red cushioned seats and thought for a moment. "See, I was thinking of something like the first time I tried this," His fingers drummed a repetitive beat on the table. "Y'know. Just rush them. Except with more weapons and people."

"That's your big plan?" Rey replied, raising an eyebrow. "Wow." She paused. "There is no way that's going to work."

"Do you have a better plan, princess?" Travis replied drily.

"No-"

"Then you shouldn't question mine." Travis cut her off.

"Fine. When do we go through with this?" Rey wanted her feelings back just so she could feel the satisfaction of eventually slapping him.

"Tomorrow?" Travis asked.

Rey gave a quick nod. "And you know how to get there, right?"

"Definitely," he said.

"And we don't have to get past any three-headed dogs?"

"No, we don't."

They finished the fries in silence, and then made plans to meet outside of the bowling alley at five in the morning tomorrow. After a quick nodded a goodbye to each other, Rey left for home and Travis went back to work.

***

Rey left home on Sunday morning with a pair of brass knuckles, a bottle of pepper spray, and a bag of salt, in case the movies were right and it actually did something against the supernatural.

The morning was cold and dark as she got ready to leave the house. Her chest ached, and she could almost imagine that she felt nervous, even though she knew that she couldn't. "Don't mess up, and you might be able to," she told herself.

She jogged quickly through the deserted streets, then stopped outside the bowling alley, waiting for Travis to show up--which he did, a minute later. He wore black hoodie and jeans, with a matching backpack slung over one shoulder.

"What kind of extra weapons did you bring?" Rey eyed the small backpack.

"Kitchen knives, a hammer, the works, y'know."

"Cool."

They started strolling, Travis leading them across empty roads and under glowing streetlights.

After walking for around fifteen minutes, they stopped at a park, where the only other people were tired seniors walking their old dogs. Travis immediately headed toward a small cluster of evergreen trees. He ducked inside, pushing sharp leaves out of the way. Rey hurried in after him.