Scattered Souls

Chapter 31 - Dark Souls

"What's worse than what you went through?" I asked. This was the second time that I'd asked him that question, I was beginning to get a little worried as he appeared to be stuck in a state of shock. He was merely just staring ahead, without blinking and a pained expression on his face. It was evident that he was reliving all the painful events in his mind.

"Xypher, what is it? You can tell me." I said as I reached out and touched his hand.

I was grateful when I saw that my little gesture was bringing him back to the present moment, he blinked and turned to look at me. The intense grief I saw in his eyes overwhelmed me.

"Julia... Julia... " he gasped, almost as if he were struggling to get his words out.

I gave him a figment of a smile to encourage him, not knowing what to say.

"She committed suicide. She hung herself. Right in front of me. She took her last breath right in front of me. " he managed to get the rest of those words out

I definitely wasn't expecting that. I mean out of all the possibilities I'd imagined, this was by far the worst. Imagine watching the person you love killing themselves right in front of you.

"Suicide? How? I mean why did she do that?" my words came out sounding as baffled as I felt. I was still trying to process all of this information.

"The night after her wedding. She was against the marriage and was only trying to appease her mom. Her mom made it seem like I had ran away and left her."  I could hear the sorrow in his voice.

"And again I was so helpless, there wasn't anything I could do to stop or save her.  I couldn't even tell her the truth. I was so helpless." I was surprised he managed to get those words out, immediately afterwards he buried his face in his hands.

"But she could see that you were trapped in the teapot right? " I was trying to make sense of what he just said.

"Could you not explain what had happened and maybe try to talk her out of it from the teapot?" I wondered out loud before I could stop myself. Instantly regretting it when he looked up at me with a broken look on his face.

"At first when I was trapped, I wasn't able to appear as I do now. It's like I was invisible to everyone." he took a deep breath, probably trying to stop his emotions from overwhelming him.

I have to admit I was a little confused by his statement. How was he invisible first? And how is he able to appear now?

"Gradually, when I acquired more power over the years, by making deals with the dark souls, that's when I was able to appear and make deals of my own." he answered my silent questions as he explained, looking at me closely, I assumed he was trying to gauge my reaction about this whole scenario.

I was still taking everything in, still processing. This was a lot to process since it was far worse than I'd expected. When we left home this morning, I had no idea how much of emotional turmoil I'd be in for as the day progressed.

"So your ability to appear only came after?" I asked, mostly to confirm if I understood correctly.

"Yes. That's why I couldn't explain that I hadn't left or try to save her.  She couldn't hear or see me. I was trapped in the teapot, but I was invisible." he explained.

This was starting to make a lot more sense now.

"Those dark souls are quite powerful." I pointed out. "They must be, since you're now able to appear, and in such a real form at that."

"They are. But with great power comes great danger."

"Are you speaking from experience?" my tongue was processing things an awful lot faster than my brain today.

"I just wish that I was more powerful at that point, then I'd be able to save Julia." he continued, not really answering my question. However, I decided to brush it off as him being emotionally distraught at that point.

"Your soul was already trapped in the teapot. And you were invisible on top of that." I pointed out. "You were killed!" I exclaimed. "You couldn't have done anything to save her. Perhaps that was what fate had in store for her." I tried to reassure him, while circling his hand with my thumb for some form of comfort.

He scoffed.

"I didn't believe in fate... Until..." he stopped himself.

"Until what?" I decided to question. For whatever reason I had a feeling he was leaving out an important bit of information. Maybe if I pressed him a little bit, I'd get the answers I need.

"If only I was as powerful as I was now. I could've saved her." there were a few tears rolling down his cheek, this dissolved any desire I had to interrogate him for more information.

I longed to hug and comfort him again, however, I doubted it would be enough for something this tragic. And perhaps what he really needed was to get it all off his chest. I doubt he was able to share these unfortunate events with many people while he was in the teapot.

"You can't blame yourself. That isn't going to get you anywhere. Whatever was meant to happen, happened. I admit it was an awful experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone, but right now you need to focus on the present." this came pretty close to a pep talk as far as I was concerned.

I was still a bit suspicious regarding why he kept skillfully dodging some of my questions. It's almost as if he was only sharing the information he wanted to share and not all of it. In order for me to get to the bottom of this, and trust me I will, I needed to wait until he was in a better mood to start probing him for more information.