|[ The Soul Reaper - 2 ]| [UNDERGOING EDITING]

Chapter 10 // Lost Halfling

"You can't keep me here!" I cried, "I'm not dead!" Abbadon turned away from me, tucking his wings tight against his body. His cloak slithered across the ground, dark water.

"No, you are what we call a Lost Soul." He said without looking my way, "One of the living who for all purposes and acts, is already dead. You stand in my domain, and you are under my control. You can't leave this forest without my consent."

"Why? What good will this do?" I snapped.

"Good? Why would it do any good?" Abbadon chuckled, still not facing me, "I just wanted to keep you here, a new prize to my enormous collection of souls. The one single soul of a Halfling."

"I'm not that special," I snapped, "There will have been other Halflings..."

"Do you really think I wouldn't have known if there had been? Nothing in Eltor escapes my grasp, or my brother's. Whether it be from age, poison, arrow, or sword – everything that lives, dies. You are alone in your kind. There are no other Halflings."

"It doesn't matter." I growled, spinning on my feet, trying to figure out a way to leave, "And I will find a way out of this."

"I have no doubt you will try." Abbadon grinned, finally facing me, "But why would you? Cedric is here – you two can be together. And your parents... would you really leave them once more?" as he spoke two figures materialised, wisps of white blown together in a silent wind.

I turned to watch as shapes formed and features emerged. I felt my heart thud heavily as my mother approached, looking in every way as she had in life, but opaque. My father stepped up beside her and they stood before me, smiles on their white lips. I felt a hollow ache in my chest. My parents. I remembered the night they died, how I stood alone at my window and watched them fall like trees in a storm.

I had been alone, for so, so, long... and here they were. So close I could touch them. My eyes stung with the first signs of tears.

"You can't..." I breathed, feeling my lip tremble, "This... no..."

"Why go back to Eltor?" Abbadon crooned, stepping around behind me. His fingers, icy and slender, rested on my shoulder, "Your family is here. Why go and fight for a land that has treated you with nothing but unkindness?"

"Because..." I whispered, a tear rolling down my cheek. I held a hand up towards my mother and she responded, her own ghostly hand an inch away from mine. "Mother..." I bit my lip to stop the cry escaping my lips. Her fingers fell through mine, as insubstantial as the air. She wasn't really here – or was it I who wasn't truly there? I curled my fingers back into a fist and dropped my hand by my side.

"You fight for what is important..." I muttered, "I don't belong here... even here, I'm separated from them!" I shrugged away from Abbadon and faced him, feeling determination swell inside me. "You can't keep me here forever!" with a burst of blue my mother and father faded and I felt emptiness fill me. without them by my side, I felt my courage falter.

"I can, and I will." Abbadon growled, his eyes darkening. "That runes stops me from reaping your soul, however my magic still binds you to these trees."

"I will find a way out." I snarled, "I will get back to Eltor. And I'm taking Cedric with me."

"You never learn, do you?" Abbadon growled, drawing away from me, "You think you have control over who lives and who dies – Cedric is dead. His soul may have been returned to his body, but truly he is dead. And should you take him back it will slowly destroy him.

"Do you truly wish that upon him?"

"As if you care!" I snapped, "As if you care if he hurts or not! You're selfish – you just want his Soul, and mine."