My Boy Fills Coffins

Chapter Eight - You Have Really Small Hands

Chapter Eight – You Have Really Small Hands

Noah cursed over and over, damning everyone from his mother to the weather girl on national television for being wrong. Hearing Noah freak out slightly didn’t help my nerves at all. If the pro was freaking out, what did it mean for me? Was I going to die? I was too young to die. I was too cute to die. And, of course, because it was me and my life we’re on about here, I had the weirdest reaction. I started giggling like a manic old lady. Typical. Every time my safety and/or life is endangered, I start cackling away to myself.

Noah turned to look at me disbelievingly. It seems like it isn’t appropriate to start laughing in this occupation. I shrugged non-committedly. Hey, he can’t blame me. He didn’t say not to laugh or anything. He pulled his scythe which is actually a dagger out of his jeans, and I wondered briefly why he had a dagger down his pants before waving it off and deciding to actually get serious.

“Okay, remember what I said, stab them in the middle.” Noah yelled, stepping over a worn down gravestone that barely reached his knees. I nodded, clutching my own dagger so tightly that my knuckles began to turn white. The black souls didn’t appear to want to kill us at first, I’ll admit that. They basically just stood around us, making weird groan-y noises. Then Noah stabbed one, and their groaning turned to a chorus of rasping screams that made my back teeth ache.

I took a tentative step forward, keeping my eyes trained on a black mass that was swaying slightly and coming closer and closer. Of course, yet again I manage to make myself look like a freak my tripping over a stick. Yes. A stick. “Gaaaahhhhhhhh!” I yelped, and Noah turned to look at me once more.

He paused what he was doing, “Jesus, stop rolling around on the ground, Autumn! You’re not a child!” He barked, and with flaming cheeks I stood up. The soul I had been watching was now just mere inches from me. I focused on it, and in a quick motion thrust my dagger into its centre. It shattered in a high-pitch hiss, and another one quickly filled its place. I dispatched that one just as quickly, the whole process quickly becoming methodical.

By the time we were finished, I was covered in the black substance that shot out when they ‘died’. It was after drying on my skin and clothes in places, creating a black stretchy film that seemed to be stuck to me. I picked at it with my nails, but it wasn’t moving or peeling off.

“They weren’t normal souls.” Noah stated, moving to stand beside me in a few steps. He too had a black film that covered him head to toe, with streaks of it marring his skin. With his black clothes, you could hardly tell it was on him, and I saw why he might actually wear the colour all the time. He watched my futile attempts at removing it with an amused smirk. He didn’t bother trying to take it off himself.

“What made them abnormal?” I asked, not getting at what he was driving towards.

Noah sighed through his nose, “They didn’t try to fight us. They just stood there and let us kill them. That’s not normal, Autumn. Normally they are up in your face, trying to strangle you, or smoother you.” Noah sounded confused, and almost childlike. It made me want to cuddle him. Yes, you read that right. I want to cuddle Death.

I continued to pry at the black film, Noah watched and his grin widened as I continued to fail. “But what could make them act like that? And how do you get this stuff off?!” I groaned in defeat, and Noah was silent for a while.

“I think it was a warning, but I don’t know why,” He stated, “I have stuff that will get it off at the apartment. That stalker Dora gave it to me. It works pretty well, but I don’t have a clue what she put in it.” Noah’s nose wrinkled when he mentioned Dora and I got a feeling that he didn’t like the blue haired midget very much for some reason.