Ed questioned Buddie as he turned his head away from Belle. He didn’t want to look at her corpse. Sensing it with his threads was already bad enough.

“You’ve completed your work here. You can now go back to the office and continue on with your day,” Buddie said.

Ed didn’t deign Buddie with a response. He turned around to open the door, and pulled his threads back towards himself. The bits of blood and brain disappeared before the threads returned to him. Wiped clean from existence just like any other mess.

But as he pulled the threads back, one of the threads lingered in her body just long enough to touch her soul.

Ed felt a hunger in his soul. An intense yearning and desire to feast. His soul hadn’t eaten anything in a while, and now that it was so close to a source of food, it couldn’t help but want to eat it.

Although her soul was weak, it was better than nothing.

No! Ed struggled against the feeling, and tried to pull the last thread back. He fought against the feeling in his soul and forced the thread back.

The thread was slowly pulled out of Belle’s body, but not before it managed to scrape off and eat a tiny bit of her soul.

Dammit. Now she’s gonna be even weaker heading into Hell. Let’s hope she doesn’t face anything particularly dangerous. I hope she can have a decent life down there.

Ed’s soul radiated annoyance with a slight hint of satisfaction. Annoyed that it was stopped from feasting, but satisfied that it managed to at least get something to eat.

Most of the time it was fine, but in moments like this Ed really felt like his soul was something entirely separate from himself.

He knew it wasn’t. He knew that he was his soul, and his soul was him. But these moments where it sought to satiate its hunger made it feel like he was containing a ravenous beast inside his own body.

Leaving Belle’s body to be handled by the healer, Ed left the room.

Standing in the hallway, he looked at the row of doors. I wonder how many of them are going to still use these rooms after today?

As he was lost in thought, he watched as Belle’s door was wiped away, like someone had gone over it with an eraser.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

And in only a few seconds, the door was gone, like it had never been there in the first place.

At least I don’t have to look at it anymore.

He walked back to the end of the hallway and returned to the office, sending Zara a text while he did so.

Lucky enough for him, Zara was there at her desk, watching her trap with a smile on her face.

She was fully engrossed in watching as a middle-aged man was forced to break his fingers so that he could try and escape.

Ed walked up behind her, pulled his seat over, and wrapped his arms around her as he nestled his head on her shoulder.

Having seen the text message, she wasn’t caught off guard by him being here, and instead enjoyed the warmth of his hug. “How are you feeling?”

“Not great. Buddie had me kill Belle.”

She grabbed his hand that was on her stomach and started softly kneading it with her thumb, trying to comfort him. “That must’ve been hard for you. How about you get started on your work here and once I’m done I’ll go and cook you up something nice?”

Ed breathed out, smiling slightly. “Yeah. That sounds nice.” After holding her for a while more, he turned to his computer and began working.

Name: Campbell Midgley

Age: 26

Occupation: Unemployed

Biography: Born to parents Samuel and Kaitlyn Midgley, Campbell was the second of four children. His father was a basketball couch for a local youth team, so Campbell grew up playing basketball from a young age.

Once puberty struck he grew very rapidly, reaching nearly two metres in height. And with his father’s tutelage, he grew up to be an exceptional basketball player. He joined his high school team as well as the local youth team where his father couched.

He graduated from high school and received a sports scholarship, but was unfortunately injured in a game during his second year of university. The injury was so severe that he couldn’t continue playing basketball. After the injury happened, he could barely even walk.

He lost the sports scholarship, and although his family could continue to pay for the rest of his tuition, he ultimately dropped out. He had put so much of his time and energy into basketball that he had fallen behind in his learning, and he just couldn’t keep up.

He spent the next few years healing from his injury, until he reached the point where he could walk normally again, albeit with a limp, but he could never play basketball again. His hopes and dreams of playing basketball professionally had been destroyed.

He became depressed and gloomy, and his personality took a turn for the worse. He became bitter. And he was jealous of all the people he saw playing basketball. His family did their best to comfort him, but it didn’t help much.

He didn’t know what he was going to do with his life. He was so close to reaching his dream that now that he had to settle for mediocrity, it left a bitter taste in his mouth and a knot in his stomach.

His youngest brother grew up and was even more talented in basketball than he was. He excelled at almost every part of the game and dominated the court in youth games, even leading their father’s team to the championship.

His youngest brother went on to achieve his dreams, and was drafted onto a professional team, but Campbell wasn’t happy for him. He was jealous.

His jealousy spiralled, and he killed his younger brother...

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