Episode 4

I prepared myself for a fight, but what that thing did was to enter the body of the princess whatever-her-name-was. I understood that it was doing the same thing it did with the animal from before.

But I didn't see it coming that the girl's head would be reconstructed.

I noticed that something had changed, though. That girl's eyes had been green, while now they were violet. No idea why, and at this point, better not even ask me questions, I thought.

The thing moved the princess's neck. It creaked like a dry branch.

And the truth is that it moved it too much, as if it had a broken neck. It kept moving it in circles. I figured it was testing its new body.

I stayed where I was instead of seizing the moment to attack the thing. I couldn't say why. Even now I couldn't say.

As I mentioned, I felt neither fear nor disgust.

A complete and cold indifference. So I should have moved, but I stood there like a statue. Maybe I was simply trying to process all the shit that had happened to me in such a short time. Enough shit to drive someone crazy, and not a single one of my thirty-four years of life had been easy so far.

“Holy fuck. Seriously, holy fuck. And here I thought my life was complicated... A few hours earlier?”

I didn't know too many things. I didn't even know how I had died or how long it had been since then.

I hadn't wanted to tempt my very bad luck by getting cocky with what was quite possibly Death with a big fat capital letter, not just any grim reaper. Even if I had, he probably wouldn't have told me more than he wanted to, which is to say fuck all, but I still regretted that I hadn't been quicker with the questions.

“What are you?” The princess was dead. She had to be dead after that. It had to be just the creature, controlling even her voice. Creepy regardless of how it was interpreted, though.

“You took the words right out of my mouth. What are you, you damned freak of nature?”

Silence. Hadn't expected that, heh.

“You should know that.”

“I'm not from here.”

That dreadful creature took its time processing that, blinking slowly. All of its movements, big or small, were unnatural in a way that hadn't been present or I hadn't been able to notice when it was just controlling that animal.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

It was too obvious, as if it were really just pulling the strings of a puppet.

“And what you want... is to go back?”

“I don't think that's on the table,” I replied, half wondering why I was having a civil conversation with this freak of nature. “I'm looking for my immortal soul. Looks like I won't last more than a week without it.”

“A soul, free out there.” it blinked several times in quick succession. “I'll help you.”

I took a step back. And then another. Just in case.

“Oh yeah? Why?”

“To eat it.”

Did I hear that right?

“You think I'll just let you eat it?”

“No. I'm ready to fight. But without me... it'll be harder for you to find it.”

“Sounds good, but I need more than nice words. What exactly can you bring to the table?”

“Smell.”

“What?”

“I can smell. Souls.”

“And how does that help me? It's not like you've ever smelled my soul and can track it like some kind of dog.”

“But if I caught its scent... I'd know it was yours.”

I paused, but more to give the appearance that I was thinking about it than anything else. It wasn't much, but something. It wasn't going to say anything that contradicted its sales pitch, of course, but there was also the fact that its words suggested that my soul wasn't the only one out there.

I needed help and this was something, at least.

“Okay. But can you switch bodies?”

“I'm fine like this.”

“It could be useful, but it could also bring us nothing but trouble. She is, was, a princess. We'll attract attention wherever we go, like this.”

“I'm fine like this.”

I sighed. And for a few moments I rethought my decision. Just for a few moments. I approached the carriage and tried to set it upright.

As I said, I was only the only man standing. The princess had survived... until she hadn't. And so had the horses.

My hands did nothing but go through the carriage. I tried several times, got frustrated and asked my new partner for help.

“A little help here?”

Jesus! The princess's face split in half, the tangle of tentacles grabbed the carriage by all four wheels and thus set it upright quite easily. It handled it as if it were a toy, as if it weighed nothing at all. Seeing that, I wondered how it had such trouble getting the spear off me.

And whether I would be able to deal with this creature once it inevitably turned against me.

At least it had warned me beforehand.

I climbed into the carriage and took the reins. I had no experience at this either, of course. I hadn't even ridden a horse once. But it couldn't be that hard, could it?

The princess. I mean...

“Do you have a name?”

“Plague,” the thing said.

“You certainly look like some kind of horrible infection, but no. That's not a name... Is it?”

I realized I wasn't in my world, so for all I knew plague could be a name and could mean anything else. Or maybe we weren't even speaking the same language and what was allowing me to communicate was some sort of magical translator.

My day had started with “You're dead” and had only gotten worse since then, so right now my mind was open to any possibility.

“Species.”

“You say that's the name of your species?”

“At least what humans call us.”

“I see. I wonder why.” I also wondered if the creature could understand sarcasm. “Whatever. Plague works for me. Plague, period.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, buddy. Where the hell do we go now? Any ideas?”

Silence. Nothing but silence, for quite a while.

“Yeah. I can see you'll be a big help.”

Episode 4: FIN