‘T-they said it would be fine, a minute – not even, just until she got through the door. I didn’t know this was going to happen. Siara said it would be a secret, she said she felt okay!’ Xander erupts. The words can’t fall out of his mouth quick enough. ‘T-the boy too – he wanted her to go, have fun. I said no, I told them no, but S-Siara seemed sad, like something was bothering her so I helped. I-I didn’t know. I only used my abilities on her for a second…’ My stomach sinks. Xander continues to trail on but I have already stopped listening, focused solely on the catastrophic consequences of Siara wandering around like a lit beacon for all creatures to see. She could be dead already. It might already be too late.
I barge through the wooden door into the room where Charlotte has been shamelessly eavesdropping on our conversation.
‘My goodness, what’s wrong?!’ she shrieks, fumbling back in an attempt to feign innocence. Without tact, I swipe my hand through her transparent body, its form rippling like a mirage in the space between us. Charlotte shouts, mortified, but I don’t care. Siara’s still alive.
‘We have time. If Marxel wanted to kill her, he would have done it already, and Charlotte would have gained Siara’s physical body in the process.’ Xander raises his eyebrows. ‘That was the condition I agreed to in order for – in order for things to happen…’ Xander glances at Charlotte, understanding my meaning.
‘You could have just asked me,’ Charlotte grumbles, readjusting the pleats of her dress.
I ignore her comment and head for the door. ‘We need to go now.’ Striding outside, Xander follows closely behind.
Charlotte, on the other hand, trails after us slowly, arms crossed in an obvious display of disinterest. ‘You don’t even know where she’ll be, Will. This just seems like more effort than it’s worth.’
I nod to Xander and he begins to draw the pentagram in the snow. ‘I have a fair idea. Marxel was always one for dramatics.’
Marxel is baiting me, and if there’s one place he knows I hate, it’s the slate. A world of nothing but bad people and bad intentions. The thought of Siara picking a fight with the demons there sends me plunging my ice spear into the portal, activating it only seconds after Xander is finished. The light shoots through the lines, sparking as it travels up the stick Xander was using and colliding with his fingers. He winces as he lets go, shooting over an irritated glare and promptly opening his mouth. It closes sharply, locked into gritted teeth. If he was planning to say something, he has ultimately decided against it. Xander returns to the centre of the portal to stand beside me.
Charlotte looks on from the steps of the cabin, a reserved bitterness lingering in her eyes. ‘Please don’t take long. When you return, things can finally go back to normal.’
I nod, with not much else to say. It’s insincere at best. Normal – what even is normal at this point? Xander shifts unnerved, his eyes darting to me. ‘Master, if I knew this was going to happen I would’ve never–’
‘Don’t,’ I say, my voice sharp. I don’t want to think about this anymore. ‘Now’s not the time. If anything’s happened to her…’ I can feel Charlotte’s eyes watching and I let the rest of the sentence trail away.
This purgatory existence has many worlds but none is more notorious than The Slate. It is a world of nothing. A dead world. Once, there was probably a demon that kept this place alive, in control, but that individual has long since vanished. Now, it’s nothing more than a wasteland full of unscrupulous individuals with all the time in the world. It’s easy to become bored when you’re dead, and the demons living here make it their sole purpose not to be.
The icy wind subsides from the portal, presenting the vast nothingness of The Slate. Fog stretches out endlessly, thick and disorientating. I release a deep breath, steadying my courage.
‘I hate this place.’
I blink, surprised, turning to Xander. He said what I was thinking. I raise my spear at the darkened shapes that move eerily through the fog. ‘Yeah, me too.’ For a place that’s relatively sparse of individuals, there’s a lot of activity going on, meaning the portal has put us right in the one spot I didn’t want it to: the night market.
‘Hello, travellers, would you like to buy something from me today?’ a soothing woman’s voice calls from amidst the fog. Her silhouette dances around us like a fairy of the mist. One that is as enchanting as it is deadly.
My grip tenses, white knuckled against the spear beside me, tracking the dancing silhouette. ‘Xander, stay close.’
He nods, shuffling closer to me. We continue to walk forward, ignoring the woman’s enchantments. Of all the terrors of The Slate, this one is the most irritating.
Sellers.
‘I have so many things to make your unbearable existence a little more bearable. Take this mirror, for example. It shows you how you used to be – or this box. Open it and you hear the voices of your loved ones departed,’ she coos sweetly. Xander’s face falters, glancing back, giving the seller the signal she needs.
‘Don’t listen,’ I hiss. The boy covers his ears tightly with his hands, his face scrunched. She opens the box. A flood of voices reach my ears. My mother and father’s voices, along with most of my brothers and sisters. Even Marina’s voice is there singing just as she used to, a long long time ago. I wince. That one stings a little but not enough to sway me, not enough to con me into giving the demon what she really wants: my soul. I look over to Xander, his palms pressed against his ears as tight as he can. I’m sure he can hear them too, his parents. If a smaller demon gives in, which they often do, the demon takes some of their power in exchange for the goods, but then in their weakened state immediately consumes them whole. The voices grow in intensity. They begin to call out in distress, beckoning me to save them. Blood curdling screams ring through my mind, echoing out into the fog surrounding us. They’re not real. I know they’re not real. I listen with the fear of hearing one voice, a certain voice. When I don’t hear it, my mind settles. If Siara was dead, surely the box would have used it against me.
‘Where is Marxel?’
‘I don’t know anyone by that name.’
‘I don’t have time for your lies. If you work here, you know him. That’s all he does, hang around this place all day.’
The figure stops dancing.
‘Buy something from me and I’ll tell you.’
‘We don’t need any of your fake voices or stolen souls. I won’t ask again.’
The figure quietens. A soft chuckling echoes through the fog.
‘Souls, you say? Interesting. I haven’t sold souls in a long time. It’s been a bit dry out there, you see. Are you a past customer, perhaps?’
Xander shoots me an accusatory glare.
‘In saying that, I did acquire one just recently. It’s a particular soul that might interest you. She was a pretty little thing, she was.’ Her voice slides out like its own form of bewitchment behind the cover of the mist. Nausea ripples through me. ‘It’s fresh.’ It’s not Siara. I know it’s not. There’s no way they’d work that fast. I know that yet I can’t seem to get the thought out of my head. My silence gives her the cue to continue, misinterpreting my anxiety for interest.
‘But I’m not a bad person, of course not. Why, I’m even willing to give you a little taste…’
She takes the soul out of a hidden pocket in her shadowy dress. A glowing blue orb of light illuminates through the fog. The smell only a demon would know reaches us both. The familiar scent resonates through my body and dread immediately causes me to grab Xander’s arm.
A young female soul. This is bad. This is very bad.
Xander’s eyes are alight with a deep red as his body tells him to consume it. The seller’s spell has caught him, his mind already wracked with guilt. His facial expression shows the turmoil inside him. He fights but not as hard as he should. I thought I had trained this out of him. It’s been so long since…
He tugs a little against my arm and I hold tighter. Xander has only survived off animal souls since then, not daring to take the life of a human again, just like he had promised. But here a soul is, the host already long dead, so he wouldn’t have to feel guilty about the kill. A soul that is going to be consumed either way, so why shouldn’t he take it? My long nails dig into his flesh serving as a warning, an attempt to shock him back to the present.
‘One human soul is not going to make you stronger or any less hungry,’ I warn, staring down at him. He knows it’s a lie. Little by little he gives in to his madness. ‘Xander, if you do this, remember it’s not you who will pay the consequences.’ He flinches slightly but his gaze remains clouded. He can’t bring himself to look me in the eye. Charlotte’s words must still be playing on his mind.
‘You don’t understand. You never understand. Every time,’ he whines, tugging against me again, this time with more force. Pouting childishly, Xander stamps his foot. I sigh, a swear escaping under my breath. It’s becoming evident that this is going to become a bothersome situation. This is why children should never become demons. All the years of knowledge in the world won’t make up for a lack in impulse control.
