Hollow Souls (the short story anthology)

Another Soul

She smiles. That's very rare. She wears a mask. To fool herself.

She made friends with different people and learned new things about different people. The chilly breeze blew through her hair making it flow like an angels descending from the heavens; each hair like gold glowing in the sun. Her blinding smile warmly washed those around her with happiness. Everyone who she spoke to she blessed with care and love.

Care and love. This is what she gave. Giving hope. She was a gift to all the people around her. She would swoop in with her white angel wings, shining light onto the despair of others and charging in with her aura to rid anyone of the dark, evil, vile beasts that lived within them.

If she was to hold your hand, you could feel the world transform around you. Just a simple touch and she expelled the demons. They retreated in fear, as if they ran from her immense power. Her kindness was that power.

A lot was missing within her. She felt lost, alone, unloved. Dark, crooked, witch like hands would flow around her as she thought about trying to speak to someone about her problems. She would try to order her thoughts flowing through her mind and attempt to suppress the anxieties and paranoia that would build, build up to be the hands flowing around her. Dark purpley black that would sway around her and hold her back from the happiness she so much desired.

The hands controlled her conscience. They had complete control, like a puppet controlled with strings. Her conscious would be screaming, crying, kicking, reaching out. The hands would stop the crying and screaming by sealing her mouth. Hide the tears by covering her eyes. Stop the kicking by forcing her still and stop her reaching out by grabbing her arms and pulling them back. The result would be her physical self, standing there, blindly smiling.

All her attempts to suppress them were futile, pointless. She thought she could, they would sometimes become calm and flow gently. This was all a deception. As she would try approach another person for help, the hands would strike into her body and grip her heart. The shock, the pain, the suffocation; the hands squeezing sending waves of anxiety to flow in her blood. Mix in and control her body.

One day came a wandering soul. He walked by her and looked her in the eyes. She smiled, but he looked back with a curious expression. She grew nervous, the expression was new to her, yet she kept eye contact. He began to approach her keeping his eye contact. She stopped smiling and began to grit her teeth. She could feel a strange presence about him, but she just couldn't make out what it was. It was overwhelming and powerful. He now stood there in front of her, it was almost as he could stare into her soul, peek at her memories and see the hands that were controlling her every living moment.

Her body became weak and she lost balance. He grabbed her hand to stop the fall; his overwhelming presence became warm to her as soon as their hands touched. The dark hands tried plying her hand from his, but it didn't work. His presence was too powerful for the hands; it weakened them. Her eyes began to tear up. The hands tried to cover her eyes but the tears on her face felt burning to them. She grabbed both of his arms. The hands overpowered by her, unable to restrain her. No matter how hard the pulled they couldn't pull her from him.

He gave an empathetic smile, the glow of compassion lit up in his eyes. He opened his arms with her hands still holding on to pull her close. Releasing her grip, she pressed her head into his shoulder, trails of the waters of woe running along her cheeks and falling to the ground. She slowly wrapped her arms around his shoulders. The hands of darkness stopped trying to hold her back, they became gentle.

They began to gently hold the strange man. It was as if both she and the hands had seen something inside the eyes of the strange man. What was it that was inside him that caused her to momentarily forget her pain?

He held her close, still smiling, but his eyes closed. His expression turned more into a loving look. A face of kindness. The sight that had been seen was powerful. To anyone who was watching; they had seen the one caring angel fall apart. But they also saw into his eyes as he opened them. Tears rolled down his face as he held the fallen angel in his arms. Smiling, he looked into the sky in thought. What was on his mind; whatever it was, the emotion could be felt in the air around him.

The people around felt the despair between both of them. What had happened to this poor soul to cause the air around him to become thick with woe? His eyes. Look into his eyes. He was releasing the despair from her. But his eyes were intriguing yet disturbing. 

His soul was gone. The mask of emotions was easily passed in his eyes. There was nothing behind them. He was empty. His soul a goner. He was hollow.