Installment 1
Part 3
Elizabeth spent a painful ride slumped in Chris's passenger seat. Chris gripped the steering wheel so hard the plastic crumbled in his fingers. Oh my god that can't be normal! What do I do. Stay calm Elizabeth looks like she's dead already! Maybe I should take her to a hospital instead. She told me to take her to some old woman's house for some reason! Maybe they're related but maybe she's loopy and the longer she goes without medical attention... No! Too much has happened tonight that's weird and she seems to know what she's doing. Besides this is probably a dream. But it feels so real! I don't know anymore...
Elizabeth gave him directions as they drove and Chris alternated between driving twenty five miles over the speed limit and just barely crawling along. Elizabeth needed help but she was starting to look nautiouse. Finally, they reached a huge brick house on the lake, half hidden behind pine trees. The house seemed large for one woman living by herself. They pulled into the long gravel driveway and got out of the car. Elizabeth opened her door and tried to stand on shaky legs but before she could protest Chris had circled around and scooped her up into his arms. So close to him Elizabeth could not help herself; she wanted him badly. She knew she could not be with him. She knew this but wrapped in his arms she couldn't recall the reason why.
On the porch Chris awkwardly balanced Elizabeth's small body against one hip, like one might hold a child. Up close Elizabeth studied him: he had green eyes with flecks of gold and brown hair the color of dark chocolate. She studied his spirit as well but all she could make out was a panicked flurry of thoughts, whether his or her own she could not tell. The spirit she had hastily patched to his was silent but she could still sence it. There was a gaping hole where it had been and her other spirits tried desperatly not to get sucked out.
As he was about to knock on the door it opened to reveal a thin old women in a white night gown silouetted by light. She had long silver hair, soft blue eyes and plenty of smile lines; Chris could tell she had once been beautiful. The woman had eyes only for Elizabeth as she brushed hair from Elizabeth's face and whispered somethng into her ear. Then she looked at Chris and reached out her arms as if she were offering to carry her. Chris looked at her skeptically. After a moment the woman shrugged and stepped aside.
Chris found himself in a huge open room cluttered with furniture: couches, chairs and tables with board games still set up. He set Elizabeth down on a couch and without thinking left his hand on her sholder as he looked around the room. Elizabeth blushed a deep red but Chris did not notice. The room was brightly lit and cozy if not as fashionable as the house's exterior. The woman took a quilted blanket out of a closet and wrapped it around Elizabeth. She led Chris outside to the back porch and told him to waite.
After she had fixed Elizabeth, much to Elizabeth's embaressment, she listened to her story.
"Elizabeth why did you save him?" Leader never used their nick names. "Don't say it was because it was your duty as a guardian. This went way beyond your duty as a guardian! If you had been thinking as a guardian you would have called for help. For heavens sake Elizabeth that was a level 7 spirit collector, at least! What if he had been fully operational?"
Leader had risen from her seat by now. She sighed and sat down. Taking Elizabeth's hand she said "I'm sorry for raising my voice... In twenty minutes I'm going to come back in here and you're going to have made a decision about all this." After a hard one sided conversation Elizabeth had a time limit on what would be an important decision.
***
"Sit, relax, Elizabeth is fine," said Leader as she stepped out onto the dimly lit porch. She sat in a whicker rocking chair and Chris absentmindedly took a seat on a porch bench. The old women before him looked so worn. Aged by things Chris and most people couldn't even imagine.
"Uuuuugghhh! Your questions are giving me a headache already," Chris hadn't said a word yet. "Now listen carefully. I'm going to tell you everything but you have to be patient. Then if you ask any questions I'll try my best to answer them." Chris nodded immediately; he was desperate for an explanation.
"Humans are born with a spirit made up of a heart and a soul that combine to make their entire being. The heart is-"
"Wait, how do you know and what does that have to do with-"
"There! I knew you would do that! Do you want to listen or not?" He nodded. She looked at him skeptically for a moment but continued.
"The heart is purely you. It's your talents, your preferences and basically your personality. The soul is your life force if you will. When someone dies their soul is used again to breathe life into another being. The soul absorbs the heart when the being dies and is about to be recycled so souls contain lifetimes of experience. An old soul is usually very strong. How strong your spirit is can affect things like how mature you are and how strongly you can influence people and the world around you.
Together the heart and soul are one, separate yet the same. They make up a person's spirit. Some people are born with stronger spirits... like you were. If you are born with a strong spirit you can join the Keepers. They keep our world and the world of Dreams separate.
The world of Dreams is the parallel world connected to our own. Without it our world would crumble and the same goes reversed. The world of Dreams contains dead spirits and the spirits of our forgotten dreams. It also contains the banished evil spirits contained within a sub world. When a human being kicks a bad habit the spirit of that bad habit is banished from the person's body. And so a pure evil spirit called a demon is born. The evil spirit either latches onto someone new or reaks havic until we, the guardians come and destroy it.
The guardians do basically, for simplicity sake, the same thing as keepers but in our world. Guardians have more than one spirit. Keepers and Guardians do, for simplicity's sake, basically the same job in two different worlds and together they keep our worlds separate. They fight evil spirits and keep the peace.
That ugly lookin' beast back there that took you? It is what we call a spirit collector. Nasty things: they're humans usually persuaded by a demon and controlled by greed led to steeling other people's spirits. They keep the spirits locked in an object usually so they don't have to keep all of it in their body. Otherwise they wouldn't last very long as the angry spirits rebelled and destroyed them from the inside out."
"The earring...?" he wispered.
"Yes, an earring perhaps. The cloacked figure, as Elizabeth described it, was most likely the demon controlling the spirit collector. The spirit collector was not fully operational though so Elizabeth was able to take it out. It is obviouse that it was not allowed by its master to use all of the souls he collected, only a small fraction. This... earring...I assume the demon took it with him?" She paused and when Chris did not answer she sighed. "And with it the only chance we could possibly have of returning you to your former state," she said sadly, running her fingers through her long silver hair.
"Well, anyways, now that you have a second spirit you can join the guardians... Well, you have to actually. You see with out the help and recouces that come with being a guardian a being containing two spirits will eventually...go mad and die." She studied his features intently for a moment. Chris wasn't taking this all in like he was supposed to. She clutched her green pendant and offered him a halfhearted smile.
***
Now that Elizabeth was away from Chris the horrible truths about her situation came flooding back. I can't let him get attatched to me. I am a monster. How could I forget that? I do not deserve to be close to anyone. I have to remember that. Since his second spirit came from me he will immediatly feel attatched but if I erase his memories then maybe he won't be able to figure out why and ignore those feelings of attatchment. At lest he won't feel indebted if his memories of tonight are erased...
When leader came back in she was ready with a decision. "Erase his memories of tonight," her voice cracked and Leader pretended not to hear. I don't want to do this but it is for him. I do not deserve happiness, I am no better than that soul collector: too many sleeping demons within me.
***
Leader erased his memories like Elizabeth had requested. Chris fought her grip on his mind but her spirit was too strong and afterwords he didn't even remember there was an Elizabeth at his school.
Once he regained conciousness he couldn't remember a thing from that night. Breathing hevily he asked "Where am I? What's going on and who are you?" Leader sighed and sat down to explain everything again.
Part 3
Elizabeth spent a painful ride slumped in Chris's passenger seat. Chris gripped the steering wheel so hard the plastic crumbled in his fingers. Oh my god that can't be normal! What do I do. Stay calm Elizabeth looks like she's dead already! Maybe I should take her to a hospital instead. She told me to take her to some old woman's house for some reason! Maybe they're related but maybe she's loopy and the longer she goes without medical attention... No! Too much has happened tonight that's weird and she seems to know what she's doing. Besides this is probably a dream. But it feels so real! I don't know anymore...
Elizabeth gave him directions as they drove and Chris alternated between driving twenty five miles over the speed limit and just barely crawling along. Elizabeth needed help but she was starting to look nautiouse. Finally, they reached a huge brick house on the lake, half hidden behind pine trees. The house seemed large for one woman living by herself. They pulled into the long gravel driveway and got out of the car. Elizabeth opened her door and tried to stand on shaky legs but before she could protest Chris had circled around and scooped her up into his arms. So close to him Elizabeth could not help herself; she wanted him badly. She knew she could not be with him. She knew this but wrapped in his arms she couldn't recall the reason why.
On the porch Chris awkwardly balanced Elizabeth's small body against one hip, like one might hold a child. Up close Elizabeth studied him: he had green eyes with flecks of gold and brown hair the color of dark chocolate. She studied his spirit as well but all she could make out was a panicked flurry of thoughts, whether his or her own she could not tell. The spirit she had hastily patched to his was silent but she could still sence it. There was a gaping hole where it had been and her other spirits tried desperatly not to get sucked out.
As he was about to knock on the door it opened to reveal a thin old women in a white night gown silouetted by light. She had long silver hair, soft blue eyes and plenty of smile lines; Chris could tell she had once been beautiful. The woman had eyes only for Elizabeth as she brushed hair from Elizabeth's face and whispered somethng into her ear. Then she looked at Chris and reached out her arms as if she were offering to carry her. Chris looked at her skeptically. After a moment the woman shrugged and stepped aside.
Chris found himself in a huge open room cluttered with furniture: couches, chairs and tables with board games still set up. He set Elizabeth down on a couch and without thinking left his hand on her sholder as he looked around the room. Elizabeth blushed a deep red but Chris did not notice. The room was brightly lit and cozy if not as fashionable as the house's exterior. The woman took a quilted blanket out of a closet and wrapped it around Elizabeth. She led Chris outside to the back porch and told him to waite.
After she had fixed Elizabeth, much to Elizabeth's embaressment, she listened to her story.
"Elizabeth why did you save him?" Leader never used their nick names. "Don't say it was because it was your duty as a guardian. This went way beyond your duty as a guardian! If you had been thinking as a guardian you would have called for help. For heavens sake Elizabeth that was a level 7 spirit collector, at least! What if he had been fully operational?"
Leader had risen from her seat by now. She sighed and sat down. Taking Elizabeth's hand she said "I'm sorry for raising my voice... In twenty minutes I'm going to come back in here and you're going to have made a decision about all this." After a hard one sided conversation Elizabeth had a time limit on what would be an important decision.
***
"Sit, relax, Elizabeth is fine," said Leader as she stepped out onto the dimly lit porch. She sat in a whicker rocking chair and Chris absentmindedly took a seat on a porch bench. The old women before him looked so worn. Aged by things Chris and most people couldn't even imagine.
"Uuuuugghhh! Your questions are giving me a headache already," Chris hadn't said a word yet. "Now listen carefully. I'm going to tell you everything but you have to be patient. Then if you ask any questions I'll try my best to answer them." Chris nodded immediately; he was desperate for an explanation.
"Humans are born with a spirit made up of a heart and a soul that combine to make their entire being. The heart is-"
"Wait, how do you know and what does that have to do with-"
"There! I knew you would do that! Do you want to listen or not?" He nodded. She looked at him skeptically for a moment but continued.
"The heart is purely you. It's your talents, your preferences and basically your personality. The soul is your life force if you will. When someone dies their soul is used again to breathe life into another being. The soul absorbs the heart when the being dies and is about to be recycled so souls contain lifetimes of experience. An old soul is usually very strong. How strong your spirit is can affect things like how mature you are and how strongly you can influence people and the world around you.
Together the heart and soul are one, separate yet the same. They make up a person's spirit. Some people are born with stronger spirits... like you were. If you are born with a strong spirit you can join the Keepers. They keep our world and the world of Dreams separate.
The world of Dreams is the parallel world connected to our own. Without it our world would crumble and the same goes reversed. The world of Dreams contains dead spirits and the spirits of our forgotten dreams. It also contains the banished evil spirits contained within a sub world. When a human being kicks a bad habit the spirit of that bad habit is banished from the person's body. And so a pure evil spirit called a demon is born. The evil spirit either latches onto someone new or reaks havic until we, the guardians come and destroy it.
The guardians do basically, for simplicity sake, the same thing as keepers but in our world. Guardians have more than one spirit. Keepers and Guardians do, for simplicity's sake, basically the same job in two different worlds and together they keep our worlds separate. They fight evil spirits and keep the peace.
That ugly lookin' beast back there that took you? It is what we call a spirit collector. Nasty things: they're humans usually persuaded by a demon and controlled by greed led to steeling other people's spirits. They keep the spirits locked in an object usually so they don't have to keep all of it in their body. Otherwise they wouldn't last very long as the angry spirits rebelled and destroyed them from the inside out."
"The earring...?" he wispered.
"Yes, an earring perhaps. The cloacked figure, as Elizabeth described it, was most likely the demon controlling the spirit collector. The spirit collector was not fully operational though so Elizabeth was able to take it out. It is obviouse that it was not allowed by its master to use all of the souls he collected, only a small fraction. This... earring...I assume the demon took it with him?" She paused and when Chris did not answer she sighed. "And with it the only chance we could possibly have of returning you to your former state," she said sadly, running her fingers through her long silver hair.
"Well, anyways, now that you have a second spirit you can join the guardians... Well, you have to actually. You see with out the help and recouces that come with being a guardian a being containing two spirits will eventually...go mad and die." She studied his features intently for a moment. Chris wasn't taking this all in like he was supposed to. She clutched her green pendant and offered him a halfhearted smile.
***
Now that Elizabeth was away from Chris the horrible truths about her situation came flooding back. I can't let him get attatched to me. I am a monster. How could I forget that? I do not deserve to be close to anyone. I have to remember that. Since his second spirit came from me he will immediatly feel attatched but if I erase his memories then maybe he won't be able to figure out why and ignore those feelings of attatchment. At lest he won't feel indebted if his memories of tonight are erased...
When leader came back in she was ready with a decision. "Erase his memories of tonight," her voice cracked and Leader pretended not to hear. I don't want to do this but it is for him. I do not deserve happiness, I am no better than that soul collector: too many sleeping demons within me.
***
Leader erased his memories like Elizabeth had requested. Chris fought her grip on his mind but her spirit was too strong and afterwords he didn't even remember there was an Elizabeth at his school.
Once he regained conciousness he couldn't remember a thing from that night. Breathing hevily he asked "Where am I? What's going on and who are you?" Leader sighed and sat down to explain everything again.
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