Page 45

“Huh. I swear he looks more like a Percy to me,” Brenna says, her sadness dimming for just a moment.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Kristie says, eyes and gun still trained on Marcus as he finishes gobbling up Frank. “If you knew him, wouldn’t you have sent him on? How could he be here now?”

“I don’t know!” I growl.

Nothing makes sense. Not the way his empty human form looked before now. Five year old me knew him as my friend with the missing eye. Adult me learnt that Marcus Newman shot himself in the face after killing his wife and child. He wanted me to pass on a message to his mom. I did that, I did as was asked at the risk of making my own momma mad. I did it, with Miss Fanny at my side and we said goodbye to Marcus. So how the fuck is he here now?

“The remnants,” Dima murmurs, eyes on Marcus and that’s when I see it.

For a fleeting moment, there, at the edges of Marcus’ face I see another face I know. Then another and another. Blinking, I watch, eyes glued to the man in front of me as he morphs and changes, Percy’s face surfacing again, his expression moving from glee and smugness through to confusion and concern.

“What’s wrong with him? Brenna asks, her voice small as she watches Percy grabbing his chest, hunched over.

The golden glow of Frank shines through almost blindingly, growing brighter and brighter. Squinting, I’m drawn to Percy. Unable to tear my eyes away as his face morphs and changes. Sarah, the woman who was hit by a car when I was thirteen. Jordan, the little boy who drowned when I was fifteen. Miss Fanny.

“No,” I whisper as Miss Fanny smiles sadly at me. “No, no, no, I sent you on! I sent all of you on!”

Those faces are ones I fucking recognize. They’re souls I know. Souls that helped shape me into the person I am today. Spinning, I turn to look at Dima, pleading for an answer. That’s when I remember. Kristie’s monster a year ago held the soul fragment of my brother. Stolen while he hovered between life and death. This? This was done before I knew what I was doing. Before I was skilled enough to send them on whole. Back when I was too young and too clumsy to even know something like this was even possible.

Brenna’s hand lands on my cheek, turning my face towards her. She searches my face with those big blue eyes I love and she reads me like a book. “Percy preyed on you too.”

Her words steal the air from my lungs, pushing down the guilt that was rising inside me. The thoughts that I should have known better, should have done more, but how could I? I was a fucking kid. One who thought dead people were his friends. His family. I was a little boy who was trying to understand a world no little kid should have to live in.

The faces flicker over Percy’s as the souls push against him. The souls he stole. From me. From Brenna.

Miss Fanny and her smile appears once again, this time more knowing. She nods slightly at me before she disappears again. Pain seizes me, gripping tightly around fingers, my knees, ankles, toes. The pain in my bones sharpens as the souls call to me, begging to be put to rest for good. And that’s when it hits me. I know what I need to do.

“Frank,” I whisper.

The golden light inside Percy pulses once. Twice. The glare making my head turn as my hand covers Brenna’s eyes. She grips my hand, spreading my fingers a little to peek through. Percy hunches forward, clawing at his chest, growling low as he scratches at himself.

“What the fuck is happening?” Kristie mutters from behind sunglasses she’s put on.

“Frank is taking him apart,” Dima replies, his eyes on the form writhing on the floor in front of us.

Percy screams as his skin splits, white light oozing from it as it bubbles and burns, soul faces pushing against his as if they’ve found a way to escape the hell he’s held them in all this time. My knees buckle with the force of their fear, their confusion, but they know me.

“Come on,” I whisper, reaching out. “I’ve got you.”

The first fragment tears free. Sarah. Not whole, but enough. A shimmer of the woman I remember, the one who travelled with me while I told her children she loved them very much. Her eyes find mine and she smiles.

“I’m sorry.”

She winks and then she’s gone. Not destroyed or held hostage. Home. Where she belongs.

One by one I set them free, every ache in my body easing as they go. My heart eases too, as with every soul I free, Brenna welcomes them too, thanking them for finding me, for needing me as much as I needed them.

She understands me better than I understand myself. I always thought what I could do was a curse, now it’s the biggest gift I could have ever been given because it led me to her.

“Gabe,” Brenna whispers as Marcus finally escapes, his bloody eye the way I remember it.

“Marcus, I’m sorry.” He nods once, moving on like the others. To a better place.

Percy is curled on the ground, two souls still warring inside him. He claws even harder at this chest, drawing blood as he digs deeper and deeper into the skin.

“No!” he screeches, terror lacing his tone. “She’s mine!”

Frank’s light explodes out of him causing us all to flinch.