A short story

Dara:
I'm in the mood for a short story. James Toam was death. As simple as it seems, he was a true riddle. As odd and frustrating as they come. I don't quite understand the way fate works and it will always elude me, but I loved James Toam more than life. James was a killer. It's strange the way we instinctually know when things just don't add up or make sense. Yet we continue on our crash course; fully aware that we're going to burn when we finally hit our mark. I knew he was not right. I still chose to believe that I was going to change him. He was no knight in shining armor, but he was mine. So, instead of standing down and walking away from our life together I decided to stick it out and reap the rewards of a happy life. Now, I don't even have life. I watch James all day, everyday. I haunt him. I'm in his dreams, even if he doesn't remember them. I'm always around. I'm the chill in the night breeze, I'm the whisper that reaches his ears but eludes his mind, I'm the eyes he feels following him on his nightly beats. I'm everywhere and he's too pathetic to even pay attention to what his stomach is saying to him. It's screaming, "Danger! Karma is coming, she is pissed, and demands blood." Not only was he death incarnate but he was greedy and impatient. Tonight shouldn't have been any different for him. I have found through experience that when things are routine and predictable that we are vulnerable and proud. Proud because we assume we already know how the situation will play out, therefore we hold that knowledge in our mind and that's when certain disaster strikes. Tonight he sat out and he was hungry.

J. Toam
 I love my hunting grounds. I must keep on the West side. It appeals to me in a way that East just didn't measure up to. The river was rising and more rain was forecasted. It did not hinder me or my plans. I enjoy the stormy, gloomy, weather. When it's glum outside Fate lights the way even brighter to my new pretty. Although I don't understand the way Fate works and probably never will I can instantly see who my next pretty will be. I look for the aura that surrounds her. Pretty's stand out and make the other's pale in comparison. When I see a pretty I think of an angel on Earth. The colors that surround sometimes differ. I've had white, purple, and pink that surrounds the pretty. Once he saw the aura of light he had to eat the soul. It plagued his thoughts and once he started thinking about them he couldn't stop until he saw the twinkle fade out of pretty's eyes and the color swirl away into air and then who knows where? Only when the twinkle was replaced by blank, dead, doe's eyes did he know that pretty was inside of him and he could let go of her increasingly cold body. Over the years he had become more skilled. He enjoyed playing God. Although he liked to think of himself as a soul eater. He kept to himself, but wasn't opposed to polite conversation. It was rare for anyone to speak to him, but it occasionally happened. Bright baby blue lit up from around the corner like a neon sign. He spotted his pretty. She was straight ahead shining like the north star. Pretty was a petite blonde, staring straight ahead, with her head held high. James ducked into the bar on his left, acted as if he were going to walk inside, then acted as if he left his I.D. in the car, and turned around. He was now behind pretty.

Dara:
James is on it. I know who he's going for. The beautiful soul of blue has caught his eye. I know he's never had a blue soul before. He'll take her before she knows what she is.

J. Toam
Staying far enough behind this magnificent being was undoubtedly the hardest obstacle I've endured. Worse, than Dara. My first pretty. I didn't know what I was doing then. I only saw that her colors were of a rainbow and I loved every second of making her fall in love with me, trust me, give herself to me. I didn't know then I was a soul eater. I never reaped the benefits of a true Goddess. I could have taken everything from her. Instead I feel as though she never leaves me. She's everywhere and knowhere.
I can feel the power emanating from this blue pretty and I will have her light, her soul.

Dara:
He's closing in, the devil himself.  He's going to take the blue light angel and break her into nothing.  He's the soul eater, but I'm the sin-seer. He has no idea what's in store for him. I fly to blue, I sense her power. Almost as strong as mine, and much stronger than him. I press my being into her and whisper, "Danger, let me in." She hastens her pace, rubbing the back of her neck, the spot I pushed into. I rush in front and hold my thumb to her forehead. I let her see me, feel me, who I am. I mean no harm. "Let, me in. You're in danger. I can save you." She stops, dead in her tracks. Eyes closed, she nods with tears streaming down her face.

J. Toam:
My pretty stopped. Something was happening. Her colors were changing, new lights were starting to swirl around her. Like a beautiful borealis. A maelstrom of different colors, all colors. I was salivating, I've never seen anything like this. It's time to take my prey. One shot and I may be satisfied for years to come. I can see the power in waves now. It's begging me to taste.

Dara:
Our souls merge. Her name is Cora. She's older than I am. Everything I ever was and am now she sees through my memories. She knows what's at stake. How important it is that we finish this tonight, no matter the price. As one being, we "trip," on the grass. She says aloud, "oh my ankle, I think it's hurt very badly." We're waiting on Toam. This is our trap.

J. Toam:
Holy shit, what luck. Apparently the pretty couldn't handle the energy and is hurt. Far enough away from any onlookers or would be heroes, good ol' James is here to save the lady in distress. I rush down, "excuse me, miss. I saw you fall. Are you alright?" Smug satisfaction creeping up my spine and into my face. I give her my famous glowing smile. Ignighting my charm. "No, I think I hurt my ankle. My phone died earlier and I can't call for help. May I use your phone?" Her eyes were like lighting, blasting away at a cold ocean. Piercing gray and blue. It depended on how you looked. They almost startled me. "I'm sorry, I left my phone at the pub with a friend. I just wanted some air. I can carry you back if you're unable to walk. Oh, my name is James, by the way." It was so easy. These pretties are so damn trusting. A handsome face with manners will score 90% of the time. "I am Cara, and thank you. I'm pretty sure I can walk if you help me. We're just walking back to the square? My apartment is on the other side of the park. I think about the same distance and i can take care of myself from there." She spoke so timidly, but I knew an invite to the apartment would make my cake so much sweeter.

Dara:
This was cake.  Here he was falling for our trap.  Cara...Cora and Dara, taking this soul eater out on his own turf.  I know his game too well. Being his first victim, and now giving Cora all the memories and ammunition she needed to become the sin-eer. Sincere, that's all you have to be. No matter how fucked the world is. Just be sincere and you are the sin-seer.

J. Toam:
Helping Cara was easy. She wasn't that hurt. Probably a ploy to get me to her apartment for a good fuck in the sheets. Then out with her soul and I will disappear. Like taking candy from a baby or money from my grandma with dementia. We arrive. No cameras that i can see. Not that I'm too worried, being a shape shifter in my own right. I can blend in and look like average joe or stand out and be a lousy underwear model if I so chose. My mission is much more than superficial bullshit. I'm here to eat souls. Not reap souls, nor will I send you to the afterlife. I consume all of their essence, their light. It fills me and becomes me. I would say over the last 7 years, since I figured out what I am that I've taken 12 souls.  Dara probably went on somewhere since I didn't know what I was doing.  Now, I'm a master.

Dara/Cora:
This is it, I speak to Cora in her mind. We are one right now. I need your full trust and if something goes wrong and you get scared, don't push me out. I can't do anything in spirit form to harm him physically. I could only buy you seconds.
Dara, I am scared. What am I, what are you? We're star seeds. You can research it later. He's going to take your light and you will exist only through him. In darkness and hate. Your soul will be no more. You won't be reborn, go on to an afterlife, accomplish your soul mission. You'll exist in him until he consumes you.  Maybe a few years. You'll give him heath, vitality, happiness. Then he'll decide he wants to feed again. I'm not sure what happens then. You'll probably become a wretched part of his body, like his bowels or something.

J. Toam:
"Can I get you anything for your pain?" I asked her, ever so gentle and concerned. "Yes, thank you. I actually have a pain killer in my bathroom medicine cabinet. It should say norco on the bottle, " Cara responded and i had to hide my expression of utter joy. A pill popper? Maybe I'm being judgmental. Probably from an old injury. "Oh, I also have Xanex, and I am in dire need of one. My anxiety has been out of control tonight. I'm sorry. I usually don't have strange men at my place. " She spoke as if she were ashamed, but I knew this game all too well. Why is it that the brightest lights, the prettiest of the pretty, all seemed to have some type of vice? Be it drugs, alcohol, sex? It's as if they can't handle the light they carry inside.  It's too heavy for them.
"Okay, no problem. Where's the glasses and I'll get you a drink, " really I wanted to check the apartment. Make sure I wasn't in for a surprise. "Straight through that door is the kitchen, glasses are on the left shelf next to the sink. My bathroom will be through that hallway, first door on the left my meds are in the cabinet." She rattled off the directions and I started into the kitchen. Surveying my surroundings, I noticed some clutter, lots of plants, and different types of rocks, fossils,  Native American decorations, bones that were decorated, feathers and dream catchers everywhere. She sure liked knickknacks. From one spectrum to the other. Old pictures, maybe her family? One had a man lynched, just hanging there and it said, "cowboy justice," and she had written, "hang in there I'll see you on the other side," how strange.  Whatever, maybe that's why her light was so intense.
Found the glasses...went to the bathroom. Girl stuff everywhere. Pick this shit up! Oh well, too late now. Medicine cabinent. Whoa, lots of pills. Depression, pain, anxiety, sleep aids. I took 3 sleep aides and crushed them up, put them in the water. Grabbed both bottles of norco and xanex and took them to her.
She quickly whipped out two pain pills and only one xanex which she sat on her table. She was lying on her floor. She sat up to take her drink and swallowed the two pills. Just a quick drink, to my dismay. "Maybe you should drink more water," I told her. "No, I'm not thirsty. " she shortly replied back. Her whole demeanor had changed, I noticed.

Dara/Cora:
Time is running out.  He wants to get us fucked up, so there's less fight. I have to act now. The narcos will only give me a boost of energy, but that'll take 20 minutes to kick in. Dara is giving me all that she can and her anger and rage is now mine. DARA I ALLOW YOU TO TAKE OVER. Take him down.
Wow, I haven't been in the driver's seat in 7 years. Thank you.

J. Toam:
I was getting anxious to start. I can feel the energy changing and shifting in ways that I haven't experienced in 7 years. Anticipation is getting the best of me and if I don't start soon then I will explode.
"JAMES THOMAS TOAM. I KNOW YOU AND I SEE YOU.  YOUR TIME IS UP," Cara's voice was not her own it was like two voices. Two voices that belonged to Angel's of death. My veins turned to ice. My heart trying to pump this icy blood, but couldn't. It was beating so fast and hard I thought it would explode.  "What do you mean, how do you know my name?" I pushed the words out. Shaking and chattering, what was this?
"IT IS I, DARA. PROTECTOR OF THE INNOCENT. THE TRUE SINSEER. YOU KILLED ME LONG AGO. I DID NOTHING BUT LOVE YOU AND YOU TRIED TO TAKE MY SOUL. YOU TOOK MY BODY INSTEAD AND I HAVE BEEN HERE WITH YOU EVER SINCE. My soul is interlocked with yours and your victim's, for you are death, a demon, and eater of souls.  Darkness, you have no light, so you take what you don't have. You are nothing. I AM THE LIGHT AND I AM THE DARK. I KEEP THE BALANCE, AS I HAVE FOR EONS. YOU ARE JUST A TICK ON HUMANITY.  FEEDING ON THE LIGHT BECAUSE YOU ARE SCARED OF THE DARK. YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR ME."

Dara/Cora:
James Toam was scared. Right where we wanted and needed him to be. He was paralyzed with his fear. That's what happens when you have so much pride and hatred inside of yourself.  You forget that other forces are at work. There's a bigger picture and this show, life as we call it. Is not about just anyone of us. Cora grabs a hairpin, long and straight, sharp as a needle. James is on the floor now, his power nothing compared to ours combined. We set on top of him, and I, Dara Cole, will each light he has taken over the years out of him. All of his "pretties," the souls he thought he ate still reside inside him. Out they come. White, pink, violet, green, yellow,  orange, every color on our spectrum and then some. Little galaxies flowering, being brought back  into existence. He didn't eat them, he hoarded them. Off they shot. Beautiful star seeds off on their next adventure.
Now, he was utterly beaten. Noting more than a hollow shell. How badly I wanted to shove the hair pin in his ears, eyes, up his nostrils,  lobotomized him. But Cora said no. She wouldn't let anyone else die. Even a soul eater wannabe, as she put it. He was pretty comatose now. But she drank all of her water, knowing he had put medicine in it. Took about 10 of her xanex. Put a knife in his hand and together we shouldered the pain of having him hold the knife while we cut her legs up, ripped her outfit, scratched our body with his fingernails. We made him punch us, so his knuckles were red and bloody. We head butted him about 10 times. Our nose was bleeding badly and we sprayed him all over with it.
Then we went to work on her bedroom sheets tore up, lamp thrown down pictures knocked off the wall. I knew everything he did to all the others. It was very easy to recreate. Plus his fingerprints were all over everything that was incriminating. Water glass, pill bottles, faucet, even the shelf.

J. Toam:
What the fuck is going on? I am here but I can't move.  I am too weak. A spell has been put upon me. All my pretties, my lights are gone. I am nothing.  I thought I was all powerful but I'm stuck in what feels like freezing water. Dara? How...she's dead. Who is this girl and what is she playing at. I can't even open my eyes, they're too heavy. I know I'm dead.  I lost. She took my soul.

Dara/Cora:
James had no soul to take. He gave it away long, long ago and survived by stealing the light or the souls of very special women.  He succeeded for awhile.  He was not death incarnate, for death does not have an agenda. Death comes for all, and it doesn't matter who or what they are. Death does not favor, although I know from my long talks with this entity that he loves very special individuals.  He will occasionally send back from his domain. On the other hand he despises others. Those who play him, or who act like God. Picking and choosing who lives and who dies and leaving death and God to pick up the pieces. The devil, who as most people think of as Satan...the greatest deceiver ever created, let James think he was special. Do his dirty work, because the only soul eater is evil. No one is truly evil. Do you think that what I perceive as good someone else perceives as evil? Of course.  That's why when you make a choice and it's for the greater good, who's greater good? Your's or is it really something terribly evil to someone else? I can guarantee it is.  This is all orchestrated by the Great Deceiver.
When we're given free will we choose how to use it. We will be tempted, but you decide what's good or bad. Have compassion, morals, and love. You'll make it. Hatred, anger, jealousy. It'll kill you.  Give yourself to Hope, Faith, and Charity. Even if you can only spare a dollar or an ear to listen.  Give yourself to tormenting others, vengeance, and selfishness then you're never going to evolve. Your soul will be eaten.
I am the sincere...sin-seer. I will protect those who cannot protect themselves. I will fight for my greater good. If your good does not align with mine then stay out of my way. I have forces on my side who will never leave me. There is a kinship between the light, darkness, death, and the creator. If you work for the demons of this place then your soul is ours.

James:
The devil laughed at me. "How stupid you are. You oh great and powerful one. You thought you as mighty as I? In my domain?! I own the earth and all that dwell upon it. My father gave it to me. Even had you read anything biblical or really looked into anything since the age of Zoroastrianism, or the Summerian. You thought you were as powerful as Death? You are a maggot, nothing more but much less. I will take you, and make you one of mine. Your soul is already gone to me, and it is nothing but an astray collecting dust. I'll place it on the mantle and everytime I smoke I'll leave the dirty butts in you. Hades will love it. No lights, no souls, just a glass prism where nothing can shine through." I begged him for one more chance. Take away Dara, bring her to the underworld. How could this happen?
"Dara, you punk, put you to shame. She bid her time. Always with you, observing, watching. Haunting. You never realized because you were high on power. Dara has many allies now.  Death her most significant protector. Not even I can go against death. He is infatuated with this Goddess...this woman you call Dara is not Dara, she is my daughter. Her name is Aradiane. She will be reborn time and time again, as she has since the year 1330. My Father, Lord God of all spirits,  makes sure that his daughter Diana, who is of the Darkness, almost his equal, but not quite. Has a daughter on earth to teach each generation of magick, love, peace, beauty. I can never get away from them. As she was first born of my seed, before I knew what Diana and my Father, God of all spirits were doing. They made her in spite of everything I stood for. My ultimate punishment. To be undone time and time again by a daughter. This has gone on since the new religion, Christianity got its hooks in the common people. I twisted the good book, but they always find a way to make the world see. Ariadne, she is their mouthpiece. She doesn't even know it while she lives. Only when she goes home after she completes one mortal life after another. Then she forgets, and has to figure it out. What a family, eh?"  Then the devil, twisted his hand and i fell to the ground. All was black.

Dara:
James was gone. We came out and he was knowhere. I flew out of Cora and went to search the entire complex.  I was blindsided by a myriad of swirling colors.  Like a moth to the flame i was drawn in. A man was there. Strikingly beautiful. He smiled at me. "Ariadne, it is time," he said telepathically. "Who are you, my name is Dara," I spoke back. "I am Christophe, or Death as some call me. I am the gatekepper. I take souls to their next cycle. Dara may have been your name in this life. Your soul is Araidne, protector of witches, goddesses, fairies, all that is unseen." His words mesmerized me. I knew this man a very long time, but how I know i cannot say.
"Take my hand and I'll take you to your mother and your mother's father. Father God of all spirits," he reached for me. I took his hand and he put his arms around me in a warm, long embrace. I love this man. Death, the gatekeeper, Christophe. Of that I am sure.