White Orchids {BOOK 1 COMPLETED}

Chapter 30 - (Part 2)

I open my eyes and suck in the cold air. The cold feels even more tangible, it makes me shiver uncontrollably.

"Did you find it?" He asks, resting his arms against the fence.

I answer by closing my eyes for a few seconds, and when I open them again Laura's belonging is floating above the water.

"A doll?" Nine asks.

I pick up the doll and it hangs lifelessly over my hand. "Yeah, it was her childhood's home."

I can still feel the world in my head, like I haven't quite closed the gate to it yet. A feeling of forgetfulness remains, like my mind is starting to peel away like the memory of the house.

"Is it normal to feel like uhm... my mind is fading away?"

"So I've heard. It will disappear after a while. I've never had to create a world before; I've only kept the memories of those I've reaped."

That reminds me of what Sun said, that soul wanderers used to experience the soul's memories by the help of soul dust. It had become rarer as time passed. When we came here there had been a line for the creatures, while our entry hadn't had a single soul wanderer, maybe it was because it was so close to closing down for the night. Nine is likely one of the few who still visits the hall to experience the memories of those he has reaped.

I look at his arms, I cannot see his scars when he has them positioned that way.

"Your area, it was suicide?"

It sounds more like a question than I had intended.

"Yes."

"Is it not painful to see those memories? Sun told me you cannot choose what memories you'll see."

"I've gotten used to it. Besides, the chance to see something else is bigger. Not every memory is a painful one. Not even for us."

I have a feeling us isn't about soul wanderers. I look back at the doll in my hand. The cold still hangs around my body like a tangible mist.

"Is it true what they say about you?"

I tighten the grip around the doll.

"What do they say about me?"

He doesn't sound very interested.

I hesitate. "That you don't use the Stormcoin."

All I can hear is the water from the wet doll dripping into the pool.

"It's true."

"Why?"

"Because there is no point. It's different from accidents or sickness, where they have no control over it."

I swallow. I don't like where this is going.

"In my experience the Stormcoin doesn't make any difference. I or another soul wanderer will still reap their soul eventually. All I'm doing is prolonging the inevitable."

He speaks more harshly than he usually does.

"You don't know that."

I think of Emma. Before the car accident I knew there was a chance that she would walk that road, I'm scared that Nine or someone else with the same thought process would come to reap her soul, not giving her a chance of survival.

Nine leaves his place at the fence. "I speak of experience, Orchid. I have tried."

He walks past one of the openings and steps inside the pool. The jeans darken as his legs sink into the water.