8) The Soulless

I woke with a start. I had to look around to make sure I was really awake and not swimming in a pool of blood. All there was was a sleeping Edward and still-unconscious Marshall. That was the most disturbing dream I have ever had. I had a bad feeling in my gut that it was only the first of many...

It was only late afternoon when I woke up. We still have a couple of hours before night fall. Then we can cross the desert. After taking several deep breaths to steady my heart beat which was still pounding from the nightmare, I settled down to go back to sleep.

Just as I was about to doze off, I heard Marshall stir. I looked up and watched as he slowly came to consciousness, and nudged Brother with my foot to wake him up. He jumped with surprise then looked at me with a sleepy annoyed look. I then gestured my head towards Marshall, and we both sat up, ready to interrogate him.

When he finally came to and before realizing the situation he was in, Marshall sat up quickly to look around. He wasn't up very long because his sudden movements caused him pain and he fell back to the ground.

"I wouldn't so that if I were you," Brother said, slightly amused. 

"You have a couple of broken ribs from the blow you took. It will be better for you if you don't try to move around to much," I informed him.

From his spot on the ground he peered at us from the corner of his eye. He let out a deep breath, which obviously hurt his ribs because he grimaced, and asked, "What do you want from me? Why am I tied up?"

"So you don't hurt anymore innocent people!" Ed yelled at him angrily.

"Those weren't people! They were soulless monsters! They have to die! They deserve it!" Marshall yelled back, and grimaced at the pain it caused his sides.

"What does that mean? What do you mean they're soulless? What exactly are they?" I asked, trying to calm them both down and keep to the matter at hand.

He took a deep breath, "They aren't human. When I say they don't have souls, I don't mean philosophically or whatever. I mean they literally do not have souls."

I was caught off guard by this. "How is that possible? What are they? Why do they look like human-animal cross-overs?"

"They separated from their souls you idiot! Thats the only way you could become such a hideous beast!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. How the hell so you separate from you soul?! That is not possible," Brother replied, just as bewildered as I was at the thought.

Marshall turned his head towards us, suspicion written across his face. "How do you not know this? We have been at war with the beasts since the beginning of time."

"W-we... we, uh, aren't from around here," I replied.

His eyes widened in horror. "Your not from this world are you?"

Brother and I looked at each other. "No, we're not. And we have no clue how we got here," Brother told him.

"So you have no clue about the beasts, or about magic?" Marshall asked, almost breathlessly from the shock of speaking to someone from another world.

"Magic? What the hell?..."

"Yes, magic. It's a power inside each and every one of us. some can us it, others can't. You use magic to separate from your soul."

"Why would someone willingly separate from their soul? You wouldn't be human anymore?" I asked, becoming apprehensive of exactly what this world was, and what the boy and Auri are.

"They sound almost like homunculi..." Brother said this as if it left a nasty taste in his mouth. "So that's why you were killing them? Because they have no soul? They looked pretty innocent to us."

"You'd try to look as innocent as possible too if you were about to be killed for your sins. Anything for sympathy and to be saved from their fate." Marshall said this completely emotionless. As if the execution of these "beasts" was a completely normal and everyday activity. "Most separate for power. Like I said before, magic is a power that resides within all of us. The human soul acts as a cap on that power. It is to keep human beings from becoming too powerful-to keep them from playing God. Once you separate from your soul, you immediately become ten times stronger than you were magically and physically. Your soul takes the form of an animal, and you transform into a beast."

I was speechless. Is that what Auri and that boy were? Greedy, power-hungry beasts? Was what this man was doing justified?....

Before I could ask any further questions, like why he was hunting Aurora, the ground shook slightly beneath us. We stayed as quiet as possible, trying to listen and figure out what it was that made the ground shake.

That was when it came barreling through the wall straight towards us.

Author's Note

:3