"You're stupid, lazy, good for nothing!"

Shion whimpered and covered his ears. He always hated it when his parents fought, their screams could echo through the whole house. Not even his room was a good place to hide from them. It was always childish attacks, so it always made him doubt that they actually loved each other.

"And you're an ugly bitch that can only screech!"

Just then, Shion peeked up from behind the couch. "C-can't you just stop fighting? I don't like being here when you fight." His eyes widened and he ducked again to narrowly dodge a thrown vase. Then, he blurted out the worst threat he could think of. "I'm running away!"

He dashed to the front door and threw it open, then ran out of the house. All the while, he ignored the screams of his parents to come back. He ran until he reached the familiar location of the park outside of his best friend's house. Panting, he plopped down onto one of the swings to rest. He was sure to have hell to pay when he inevitably went home, but that didn't matter now. His parents had probably gone right back to fighting. He sniffled and covered his face with his hands; it felt like nothing he did even helped them get along. Before he started to fully cry, his shoulders suddenly got grabbed. He let out a yelp and looked back to see who it was. Of course, it was his best friend who was currently laughing so hard that she had fallen over.

"Allie, that's not funny!" He pouted and crossed his arms.

Alice continued to giggle for a while, unable to get up or form a response. When she finally got up, she giggled again at Shion's expression. "You looked sad, so I came over to cheer you up. Do you wanna play?"

Shion looked down. "My mom and dad are fighting again. Can I stay at your house tonight after-" He was cut off when he started to cough quite suddenly. Instinctively, he buried his mouth in his elbow to smother the coughs.

"You okay?" Alice sounded concerned.

When he stopped coughing, Shion took a glance at his sleeve. He inhaled sharply as he saw the oil-black liquid splattered on the inside of it. "W-what the fuck?" He muttered.

"Language!" Alice smacked the back of his head lightly, then saw his sleeve. "Wait, did you cough that up? We better get home, dad'll help you."

----------------------------------------

Shion sat in the waiting room, his eyes locked onto his phone. There were other people around him, but he paid them no mind. He could even see how empty his eyes looked in the reflection of his screen. Had that disease really run its course? What had it taken from him? Sighing, he opened his messages to finally check the texts his mother had sent him. She wanted him to come home already. Deciding it was too much of a bother, he closed the app again without sending her any form of a reply. He set his phone to silent and slid it back into his pocket, then reached up to fix his hair. Just as he'd set his hands in his lap to go back to waiting, a fairly new-looking nurse came out of the door that led into the offices with a clipboard.

The nurse squinted at the clipboard for a moment, which pretty much told Shion that the doctor was finally ready for him. "Uh, Sean? Dr. Lee's ready to see you," the nurse called, seeming quite unsure about how to pronounce the name.

"Alright," Shion replied, then got up from his seat to follow the nurse. He didn't comment on the mispronounced name, it happened all the time. The other waiting people watched him as he went, which made sense to him. He didn't seem sick, after all. Whatever he had couldn't be that bad, so why was he being seen first?

He was led into the doctor's office by the nurse to wait more. However, his expectation of having to wait another ten minutes or so was quickly proven wrong when the doctor walked in a mere three minutes later.

"Good afternoon, Shion. How are you feeling today?" Dr. Lee asked. She walked over to the other side of the room and took a seat on the stool, crossing her legs.

"The same. You got the message that I stopped coughing a couple weeks ago, right? I still haven't had any fits."

She nodded. "Yeah, I got the message. About that, there's a person who said she was a specialist who wanted to see you. It's up to you if you want to see her, but she might know more about this disease." She then sighed and set her hands in her lap. "Nevertheless, if you don't have those coughing fits anymore, it's a safe guess to say that it's already run its course."

Shion's eyes widened in surprise. "Huh. Didn't think there would be a specialist for something this rare."

Dr. Lee shrugged. "She may or may not be a specialist; she seemed rather sketchy. Though again, it's really your call. If you want, I'll give you her contact information."

----------------------------------------

Shion walked out of the building and toward his car, looking at his phone as he did so. He had added the contact information to his phone, apparently a woman named Lucille Taylor. He unlocked his car and got in, closing the door behind himself. Maybe he should just call her now and get it over with. Taking in a deep breath, he pressed the call button and put the phone up to his ear. It hadn't even rung once before Lucille picked up.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Hello? Who is this?" A female voice asked quickly in a rather odd tone.

Shion blinked, rather put off by how quickly he got an answer. "Oh, I'm Shion White. My doctor said that you wanted to see me."

Lucille didn't answer for a moment, though her voice was much calmer by the time she did. "Shion! I've been wanting to talk to you since one of my friends told me about your case. That was a month or so ago, so I have a question. How do you feel now?"

"Just the same. I dunno, I don't feel too much different than I did when it started. It's pretty nice to not be coughing anymore, though."

"You were coughing? Was it affecting your lungs?"

"No, at least none of the scans ever showed that it was. Plus, I'd probably have other medical conditions by now if it was. It was pretty much a mystery about what was deteriorating."

Once again, Lucille paused and Shion could swear he heard the sound of pages turning. "Weird, it usually affects one of the major organs. At least I know something more about it now for sure. I did a little check on your parents, turns out they both have a family history of weird medical conditions. It must be a recessive gene."

Shion sighed. "That seems slightly illegal. Are you even a doctor?"

"I'm someone who's trying to learn more about a disease that meant a guaranteed death. Not in your case, though. I want to learn why that is, maybe even find out what exactly it affected. Don't you want to know?"

His tone became exasperated. "I do, just try not to do anymore prying without letting me know first. It's a bit creepy."

"Of course! Do you wanna meet up today? Only if you're free."

He looked up at the roof of his car, trying to remember if he had anything to do today. There was the doctor's appointment, but he was already done with that. And he usually only went on free days. "Yeah, probably. Just tell me your address, I'll be over as soon as possible if you live in the same town as me."

"Oh, I live in Midway. Anyway, I live on-"

Shion blinked as a weird feeling began to spread from his chest. He heard Lucille's address, but then her voice suddenly became distant. Leaning his head back on the seat, he tried his best to control his breaths while they became increasingly uneven. He noticed a sound similar to dropping coins before he closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes quickly and looked around in confusion. Lucille's voice could still be heard, but it was a bit muffled.

"Hey, Shion? Shion? Are you there? What happened? Are you still on?"

"Shit, yeah. Just dropped my phone." He looked around for his phone, then let out a groan when he saw the top of it. "Y'know that area between a seat and the center console? Like, in a car? That's where I dropped it."

Lucille laughed. "That's unfortunate. Better hope you got thin fingers."

"Yeah, yeah." He reached down to grab his phone, then froze when he felt something grab his wrist that was as cold as a shower that was just turned on. His breath caught in his throat as the sensation crept up his arm. Hands that he couldn't see gripped his neck like a vice to cut off his air supply, only letting go when his ears had started to ring. He gasped for breath when they did. Realizing how silent Lucille had gotten, he looked over to see that his phone was in his hand. The call had ended.

"The fuck? Am I hallucinating?" He murmured to himself between pants. His entire body felt hot, so he put his key in the ignition and turned it, then set the air conditioning to max. He looked over at himself in the rear-view mirror, then let out a sigh. His dark brown hair was in clumps held together by sweat and his eyes were puffy and bloodshot. A few tears had managed to run their ways down his cheeks, so he reached up to wipe his face with his sleeve and then brushed his hair back.

"Don't go to her." A voice that came out of nowhere commanded him. One of the shadows on the mirror had gained a single eye and mouth.

Shion stared blankly at the mirror, then let out a single, dry laugh. "Man, I must really be out of it. Coulda swore I heard a voice."

"I could strangle you again, if you like. You better believe I'm real." The mouth moved as the voice spoke up again.

Shion laughed again in the same dry manner. "Like you could. You're just a voice in my head, a piece of my imagination. Maybe my sanity got eat-" He got cut off when he felt the invisible hands wrap around his neck again. Just to make sure he wasn't doing it to himself for whatever reason, he looked down to see his hands on his lap. "Fuck, fine! I believe you're real." On cue, his neck was let go again.

"Do you wanna know what really got eaten up?" The voice questioned in a taunting voice. In the mirror, the mouth curled up into a sickening grin. "Do you really want to know?"

Shion frowned and rubbed his neck. "Yeah, sure. It can't be that bad."

"It was your soul. You're free game for any possessions now, so you better learn how to be nice to demons real quick. Luckily, I'll keep all of the common ones out of you. Just give me free reign of your body whenever I want it. I'll even get you some extra money, I've got a talent for gambling." The voice then chuckled. "I can tell that you're luckier than you look. After all, you just so happened to get your soul withered away, and then you just so happened to catch me."

Shion's face had shifted into a completely neutral expression. His voice lost all traces of the tone it had before. "You mean I don't have a soul? Wouldn't I notice that?" He thought for a moment and looked at his lap. "Makes sense why I've been feeling lighter and lighter over the years."

"Souls are overrated, anyway. They really weigh humans down, so what good are they? I think you'll like having a demon replacing it. We could make this a mutually beneficial relationship."

"Yeah, I guess. Just don't make me kill anyone, or something. Also, I'm sure Lucille won't do anything to separate us. It might even be helpful to talk to her if she can tell me more about the disease."

"Killing isn't my thing, unless they owe me money. And fine, you can talk to her. Just don't tell her that you lost your soul, she'll probably call some shitty exorcist or something. Not that they could do much to us, they've always got the strongest morals. Forcefully dislodging me could kill you."

Shion tilted his head. "What? Then why didn't I die from losing my soul from the disease?"

"I'm not exactly sure why you didn't, maybe it was slow enough that your body got used to being an empty shell. I'm not even sure why you still seem to feel. Or maybe," the voice paused, then cackled quietly before continuing, "you've been pretending to have emotions this whole time."