The Duration Saga: A Crossover Series

Souls Stolen

He has never been able to stop himself. Not since he made that deal so long ago...

The Tall Man clears his throat after using quick hand swipes to clean the lukewarm blood of his victim from his tidy suit. He finds that, despite himself, he is standing taller than he has in days, his relaxed appendages sealing themselves within the muscles of his back. He feels strength— like heat racing across his body—awaken his muscles into new vigor. The aching hollowness in his chest, however, remains.

Another day survived, another day succumbing to his will...

He straightens his tie with a still-shaking hand as his snarling mouth filled with blood-stained fangs sews itself back into a flawless white sheet. He begins to walk away from his pine needle dinner table--head erect, hands clasped tightly behind his back.

Left behind is Berry, hidden beneath the leaf litter and needles in a shallow puddle of its companion's blood, crimson droplets spotting his snowy fur.

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"Don't forget her bottle, love! She needs two of them!" a woman with dark brown hair carries a baby car seat outside, balancing her two-month-old child in the crook of her other arm. She glances up a bit disappointedly at the sky. The day was becoming overcast, the sun peeking in and out of thick layers of dark grey cloud that had begun arriving early that afternoon.

As her husband jogs back into the house to collect the bottles and ensure that all the baby's things were in its bag, she straps the little one securely into the car seat. The child looks at her mother with wide blue eyes and coos softly. Her mother smiles in return, stroking her cheek tenderly with the side of her finger.

"Little poppet, you are so beautiful." She kisses her daughter's smooth cheek as her husband returns to the grey Mazda, extra feeding bottles and baby powder in his hand.

"Do you have everything?" she asks him, shutting the back door and moving to the passenger seat.

"Yes, I do now. We're all set!" He says, closing the door behind his wife with a smile. He settles himself into the driver's seat and tosses the baby's things into a bag in the backseat beside the open cup holder.

"Where are we going again?" the woman asks, her voice apologetic as she turns the radio on lowly.

The car takes off down the street.

"We're flying to my sister's house, in London. Remember? We have to make the funeral arrangements for my father there," He gently reminds her, causing the woman's cheeks to turn scarlet.

"Oh, yes! I'm sorry—Timothy, I cannot believe it slipped! I had the big wedding to design and Valerie-"

Timothy grabs his wife's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. He looks into her eyes while on a straight path.

"It's okay, sweetheart," he says. "Hey, mind if I check and see if they're doing a weather report? I don't like how it's looking up there, and well, we'll need to be on a plane soon..."

She nods at him and changes the channel so that he can drive. Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" is currently playing but is quickly interrupted by the warning drones of an emergency weather report.

"The National Weather Service in Baltimore has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Westminster County, in Northern Maryland, Baltimore, in Eastern Maryland, Bel Air County, in Northeastern Maryland, Rosswood City and County, in Northeastern Maryland—" Timothy sighs heavily and glances back up at the sky, which is indeed, darkening by the minute. "—until 6 P.M.—"

"Well, we can't cancel our flight, perhaps it'll just be delayed then," She says, shrugging her shoulders. "If we have to stay in the terminal for a while, I'll keep Valerie calm."