As soon as I woke up, I was on the move, running the hell out of there, my heart beating a mile a minute for having wasted so much time. Because now I only had five days and I was still as lost as I was at the beginning.

So I threw myself in a random direction, as always, just hoping for the best.

It was the only thing I could do.

I was so afraid. At first I was mostly afraid of never seeing my sister again, but now I just didn't want to disappear. I would do anything to still be somewhere, anyway. My eyes stung.

I told myself I shouldn't cry. That it was for children.

I swallowed hard and managed to hold them back. At least for the moment. The last thing I needed was to have my eyesight blurred, with several dangerous bastards probably still looking for me.

And when in this world I could find more danger around every corner.

Well. To be fair, that hadn't been all that different in my world either. Especially with the life I had led. I had lived in fear every day.

Not much, people could get used to almost anything, but something. Rumbling beneath the surface.

Fear that today would be the last day. That I would finally get caught, and spend a good chunk of the rest of my life behind bars, useless to my sister or my mother. Dead to the world. Dead and buried.

But the worst thing was oblivion.

There was nothing worse.

“Help!”

At first I thought I'd overlook it, pretending I hadn't heard anything. I wasn't a good Samaritan and I wasn't about to start now. But I thought better of it, after all, it was more than just trees, vegetation and dirt roads. No harm in checking it out.

I approached the voice. Depending on how the man was doing, maybe I'd scare him to death. Literally. Not to mention my friend, if she did something silly. That was unfair. I had to admit, Plague had been good so far, I could trust her.

Up to a point.

The man was lying on the side of the road, not far from a horse”drawn carriage. He had a trouser leg pulled up, down which a trickle of blood was running. My first conclusion was that some highwayman had attacked him, but then I got closer and noticed the bite mark.

Vampires? Well, no. Probably.

They should bite on the neck, but who knows.

I moved a little closer and then he finally noticed my presence. His back was to me when I arrived, but he still should have heard me earlier, but for the panic.

He turned as best he could, looking for help, and the hope in his eyes died quickly. Not enough for me to miss it. Evidently. But quick enough.

“Are you an emissary of death?” He stammered, pale. “You've come to take me to the other side?”

“Look. If you... take me... take us in that cart, I'll give you a hand. Deal?” The man nodded, still surprised and shrinking in on himself, as if he was about to get up and run. “What's the problem? Not that there's much I can do, really.”

“A bite...”

“I can see that.”

“Snake.”

“Ah.” I was thoughtful for a few moments. “I'm not going to suck the venom. Just so you know.”

“You have to help me,” the guy said.

“I have a lot of things to do, and I'm late for most of them.... Actually just one thing. It sounded funnier in my head.”

“But... Please...

Ignoring, I turned to my faithful companion. Another joke, but this didn't sound very funny even in my head. Someday, those eyes and those tentacles would turn on me. It was on my mind, even if it didn't feel like it.

“Do you think he'll be long before he dies?

The tentacles slithered out from under her dress. Maybe I should have scolded her for doing that, but at that moment all I could think about was where exactly they were coming from and I felt like throwing up.

Then Plague removed any point in protesting. The terrified man, who was now looking at a true emissary of death, couldn't do it either.

His head exploded in the next instant.

Plague crushed his head with a tentacle. His blood and gray matter flew away, splattering my pants and boots, and I recoiled instinctively.

“Ah, what the fuck?”

“You told me to kill him.”

“I didn't tell you to.... Well, whatever. Works for me.” I grabbed that man by the collar of his shirt. Not by his real neck, a headless neck, of course.

The urge to vomit was stronger now, but I was able to contain that too.

And I devoured his soul. I wondered, once again, how this all worked. The stranger was a frail-looking middle-aged guy, but from him I got a huge axe, so much so that I'd have to hold it with two hands if I wanted to do anything with it.

And it was cool. I had a lot of problems and other priorities, but come on. It was cool. Who didn't want a huge axe to break in half, I don't know, the face of anybody who pissed you off?

I'm not the only one who sometimes imagines that, am I?

Ahem. In any case, one more soul, one more weapon. I should be more powerful now. That wasn't doing me much good right now. My problem would be a lot easier if I could finish it by beating the crap out of someone.

I jumped on the wagon.

“Come on.

I could only rely on her up to a point, but at the moment I needed her. She was absolutely essential, in fact. Without her, I could never have escaped from that city. Death would have torn me to pieces and it would have ended there.

I still had my doubts, of course. About whether the masked man was right and Death just wanted to get me through to the other side.

But that didn't mean I was going to let myself get caught.

It was too risky. I couldn't bet eternity on a maybe. Until I couldn't anymore, I would keep fighting and moving forward under the original premise. That my soul was out there and it was the only way to save myself.

If I ran out of time, Death caught me and it turned out that I had been running around pointlessly? That would be great. But for the moment, no bullshit.

Plague jumped on the bandwagon. Dubitatively. It was obvious because it was rather strange for her.

“What's wrong?”

“I remember how this went last time.”

Honestly, I'd almost forgotten.

“Well, maybe you shouldn't have killed that guy. Then he could have driven.”

“Shall I try?”

I paused to pretend I was thinking about it. At the very least, she couldn't do any worse than me, could she?

——

I know what you're thinking. The classic moment in the movies when a character pushes his luck and the next cut shows that the exact opposite of what the stupid guy said has happened. Not at all, though.

Plague handled it well, at least as far as we got. I should have let her have the reins from the beginning.

Later I asked her why she hadn't volunteered that time and she replied that I hadn't asked her. It was as simple as that. Now that was a joke.

We came upon another village and a church on the hill. It could be a primary school too, as I saw several children running around from the rear (wher I was to not scare anyone, obviously) and I doubted it was because they wanted to. Nowadays young people, not to mention children, only went to church on holidays.

Or when someone died.

Depending on who it was, it was basically the same. More than one surely celebrated my death.

“Stop here,” I said. Plague listened to me. I was beginning to see it as a matter of course, although I was still not oblivious to the threat it posed.

“What does this have to do with your soul?”

“They probably know something. Aren't there things like exorcists fighting demons and helping ghosts pass on?”

“Maybe you're right.”

“Maybe?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“We don't know much about human society.” She hadn't shouted that, but she hadn't exactly bothered to disguise it either. If someone heard her, if someone put two and two together and discovered or at least began to suspect the truth.

Plague was a great ally, but she had her drawbacks. If we were found out, it would end in a bloodbath.

Or with us burned at the stake. Who knows.

Like flipping a coin.

Heads or tails.

“So I guess this trip is helping you.”

“Sort of. I'm still very hungry.”

It occurred to me to ask her why she hadn't stopped to eat one of the many people we'd killed along the way, but I quickly dismissed it. Because maybe she'd think it was a good point and eat my face off.

Besides.

Just because I hadn't seen her devouring souls didn't mean she hadn't seized the opportunity to do so while, for example, tearing apart the minions of that masked lunatic.

Masked lunatic sounded as if I were describing some shoddy superhero. But, anyway, how else to describe him?

“Okay. Now... Could you go into the church? Alone. And bring someone here. I don't want to scare anyone or get into any more trouble. Uh, please? And if they ask your name, just say Elizabeth...”

Good thing I had thought to add that at the last minute. Anyone she met in there, even if they agreed to help her, would at least ask her name first. Out of sheer politeness.

And I had no trouble imagining Plague responding the same way she had responded to me, at first.

With the name of her species, feared by all mankind, apparently.

Without batting an eyelash.

Without thinking that maybe that wouldn't be the best idea.

Oh, what wouldn't the priest or whatever little nuns were in there do if they found out that a monstrosity like this had entered their church, haha.

“I don't like that name.”

“I don't like it either.” It was the truth and all, but it was the first thing that came to my mind anyway. Why? How should I know. Maybe she looked like an Elizabeth. “Whatever it is, just anything but Plague, okay?”

My faithful companion, ever the communicative one, said absolutely nothing in response. She didn't even nod her head. But she did get out of the cart and started walking toward the church.

Now I could only wait here and pray that she didn't screw up.

To be fair, Plague had been very competent so far. In fact, it was I who had screwed up so badly the night before, a mistake from which we had almost been unable to recover. It was embarrassing, but I had to admit it.

Maybe I should be worried that they'd find me before, that I would screw up.

I curled into a ball, still in the back of the wagon.

About half an hour, or maybe only ten minutes later, depending on how much my nervousness had exaggerated the slowness of the passage of time (I missed, among many other things, clocks), Plague emerged from the church at last.

Better yet, she wasn't alone, her efforts had paid off.

She was dragging a nun by the wrist. This one didn't look scared or angry, but that was what Plague was doing, anyway. It looked like she hadn't wasted much time trying to convince her.

Speaking of the nun's appearance.

I had expected some old woman, but she was a young. I mean, younger than me, but clearly already an adult. What a great body she had. That outfit could be pious and sacred, but it accentuated it well. I would go to church every day just to see her.

Did she want enough kids to start a soccer team? No problem.

Hey, hey, okay, okay, it's not that big of a deal. Yeah, I'm exaggerating a little bit. I feel like teasing you.

Fast forwarding a bit, the most important thing about her is that she was also beautiful on the inside. A person who truly believed in what she did. It didn't matter if her beliefs were right or wrong. The point was that she was only bringing good into the world.

“Miss Elizabeth...” the nun said. I didn't know her name yet. Let's not get so far ahead of ourselves.

Yes, Plague decided to stick with that name after all. She must not have thought of any other. Since he knew, they knew, little about human society.

“Nothing would make me happier than to be able to help you with anything.” She meant it. She had a big heart hidden behind those melons. “But for that, well, you have to tell me what's going on. Can we talk now? What are you...?”

Plague pulled the curtains at the back of the wagon. Leaving me exposed.

“Oh,” the nun said, simply.

I thought that even in the best-case scenario, the woman would be a little startled to see me. But her reaction went completely against my expectations.

Instead, instead of perhaps the most normal reactions, what she did was fold her hands on her chest and close her eyes as if she were praying. As if? No, she was doing it for me.

The lone tear trickling down her cheek was also for me.

I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. How could she cry so openly for a complete stranger?

“The ways of the Lord are inscrutable. But the death of a child is an incomprehensible tragedy.”

Oh yeah. She believed I was a child, that I had died young, too young. That made sense. The discomfort evolved into a bad feeling like I had worms in my stomach, eating me up inside.

I felt bad about how I had thought about her when she was so kind (people like that are an endangered treasure) and about my plans to involve her in the mess that was my life.

I felt bad, yes. But that didn't mean I was going to back out.

“Look...” I tried to get to the point.

The nun looked, indeed.

From left to right, up and down, anywhere but in front of her.

“I said it. That's my voice,” I went on, scratching the back of my head.

“Ah. Excuse me.” My face darkened even more. Fuck, I know I've done some really bad things in life, but I've never thought of myself as a dick and I didn't want to start now. “Surely you want to see your parents again. I should be able to help you find them... and move on.”

I didn't want to start now, but I didn't feel like clearing up her misunderstanding. Not entirely, at least.

It was more convenient for her to believe I was a little kid with a slightly strange voice than a thirty-four-year-old adult. That's what I thought at the time, at least.

You see, I was suspicious of her kindness. Deep down I believed that everyone was softer to children. That that was it.

That it couldn't be more.

“No. Well, yes. Almost. That's what I need, but not like this.”

“How then? Ah, my name is Lucia.”

“Lucia? Santa Lucia?” I don't know what prompted me to say that instead of getting to the point, getting it over with quickly so no one would come over to pry and make things go awry. Anyway, it was the first thing that came to my mind. What was I going to do?

“I'm no saint. I'm just doing what I can.”

Compared to the average person, at least, you do look like some kind of saint, I thought. At least for the moment. Of course, that didn't make me think well of her but the opposite. It was too good to be true.

“Yeah. My name is Joshua. I need to find my soul... Don't ask what this is, then,” I said, pointing to my transparent body. “It's a complicated situation.”

Should I try to talk like a child of the age I looked? If not sooner or later she'd figure it out, surely. But if I exaggerated, if I made it too forced, it might blow up in my face.

I decided I would let instinct take over.

“More complicated than anything a child should have to deal with, that's for sure.

I was surprised that Plague, so impatient, hadn't said anything until now. By the way, I would have to get used to calling her.... Elizabeth. For a moment I didn't remember the name I had chosen. Yes, Elizabeth. At least as long as this nun was in front of me.

“You don't seem very confused.”

“It's the first I've heard of anything like that. But that doesn't mean I'm going to leave a child alone. Even one who talks like he's, I don't know, thirty.”

Very smart. She had almost, almost hit the nail on the head.

“Well, that's great. I could use anything you can think of. Seriously, I don't have anything, so...” I shrugged.

What I wouldn't do for a little help, at this point. I was like a man lost in the desert, looking for at least a drop of water.

“I should be able to. The Church deals with people who have lost their souls all the time.” I guess what wasn't normal was for them to then walk around just like that. “Sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively. Usually it's, uh, because of a contract with a demon.”

“I didn't do that,” I replied quickly. Perhaps a little too quickly, I worried I sounded like a kid who had reached into the cookie jar saying I hadn't eaten, when I still had chocolate stains on the corners of my lips.

But the thing is, I couldn't say for sure.

I still didn't remember my last moments, after all. Anything could have happened to me in that gap in my memories. Still, I assumed that magical shit and other crazy stuff didn't touch my world. Of course, I was wrong, but back then I had no way of knowing.

“I'm sure you were, are, too young to fraternize with dark forces. But you could have been collateral.”

“I see.”

As far as I was concerned, let her believe what she wanted. Now that the nun, that Lucia had come up with an answer that made sense based on her common sense and life experiences, she was more likely to believe me and do her best to lend me a hand.

She had to believe, above all else, at first.

If she looked too closely and saw only holes, she would turn her back on me, even if I told her nothing but the truth.

Sometimes the best way to fool a person was to... just let them talk. And let them convince themselves. Because sometimes people wanted to believe. Sometimes that was all they needed.

“In any case, in the meantime come in.” She added quickly, as soon as she saw me confused: “To the church.”

“What? You're not going to cover me or something?”

“It's not so strange to see spirits in places like this. Don't worry about it.

I wondered if she meant churches or, more generally, places where there was a cemetery nearby. That is, a lot of dead people, some of whom apparently were out there in this world. Like me, though I was from another.

I didn't wonder enough to waste time saying it out loud, though.

“Oh. Well, if you're sure...”

“Don't worry. Whatever happens, I'm on your side, Joshua.”

The uneasy feeling doubled. I could only hope the poor thing didn't have to pay for my mistakes and bad decisions.

And, to be honest, she also reminded me of my sister.

Maybe that was the most important thing of all. Biting my lip hard, I joined her.

——

There was no commotion, just as Lucia had said. Quite the contrary. A few kids even tried to play football with me. Yes, football existed in this world too, well, not that the thought of kicking a round thing required anything special.

I refused, of course.

But the important thing is that they tried it instead of getting the hell out of there.

“Children are very curious. Forgive them,” Lucia said, holding back the urge to laugh, when they finally left me alone and we could move on.

She had realized that I hadn't been very comfortable around so many excited, grabby kids tugging at my ghostly clothes. Shocking.

But...

“Children are a treasure,” I said with a small smile. It was no lie, I wasn't trying to please him, telling her what she wanted to hear.

Perhaps my earliest (and definitely my most powerful) memory was when I was allowed to hold my sister for the first time. Mere minutes after her birth. I held her against my chest, feeling her warmth and how tiny she was and said to myself: I am her big brother. My mission is to take care of her.

Fuck. My eyes always stung just remembering it.

So yes. The children were a treasure.

“I see you sound like an old man in more ways than one,” Lucia replied. I could tell she was joking, but I grimaced as she was getting too close to the truth anyway.

“I get that a lot. Or, well. Used to.”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“It's okay. I'm dead... It's what it is.”

“Yeah. Seriously, you're surprisingly mature.”

“I've had... time to get used to it.”

Lucia nodded vaguely. Without looking at me.

“Where are we going now?”

We walked a little further. Lucia pushed open a wooden door, the room on the other side consisting of a bunch of rows of seats and an altar. We had only just entered the church.

“You... here.” But apparently this was the end of the road. “And I'm going to get ready. The ritual should be able to help you. I hope. And if not... I'll think of something.”

Lucia put a hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me. Surely she hoped I was too young to realize the doubt that lurked behind her eyes.

“Don't worry.”

Unfortunately, that wasn't true. But I trusted her. And...

“Thank you.”

I could only say this in response.

——

The ritual must have required a lot of preparation since she was gone for a while, but the only thing I saw when she returned was a gold cup filled with a green colored liquid, of a strange and disgusting hue, like the ectoplasm in certain horror movies.

That was the first thing that came to my mind. It wasn't a pleasant image, either.

Good thing I had neither the stomach nor the ability to vomit, so I didn't have to worry about that, at least.

She set the cup down on the stairs leading up to the altar, where I was positioned. The sun streamed in through the window and fell on my back hard, it was sultry hot. I wasn't sweating, but the strong heat was still uncomfortable. I had always handled the cold better.

Lucia knelt before me, closing her eyes to pray again.

But this time out loud. And in a language, I didn't understand, though that didn't necessarily mean it didn't exist in my world. Maybe it was Latin, maybe some other dead language, or maybe it really was a language that only existed in this world.

In any case, I didn't understand it, so it could be anything and it wouldn't matter.

She finished reciting whatever it was, stood up and with her she also lifted the cup. Even over my head. She hadn't explained what this was all about, but it was clear what was coming over me. Literally.

“Is it going to hurt?”

Lucia stopped, about to spill the glass on me.

“Maybe a little.”

There it was. The typical doctor's lie, which they then thought they could fix with a lollipop and an even faker smile.

I bit one cheek on the inside, bracing myself.

I nodded, giving her permission to continue.

Then Lucia poured the cup, that green, viscous liquid. It was ten times more disgusting than fresh vomit and smelled like an entire garbage dump.

But, well. Such is life.