The Soul-The Host Fanfiction

Chapter 31: Haunted

Chapter 31 Haunted

There is snow everywhere. I blink against the cold slice of wind. I'm not used to the cold. It's been so long since I was anywhere other than the desert. I try to bring a hand up to shield my face from the flurries of snow threatening to blind me, but am surprised to find that instead of a pale, freckled human hand, a clawed paw appears in my vision. The paw--my paw--turns, and I see the tell-tale smooth palm of the Mists Planet's Bears. But that can't be right...I'm on Earth...aren't I?

I'm distracted from my confusion by the roar of a Claw Beast. I whip my head around just in time to see the creature's huge claw slice through another Bear, sending a vibrant splash of blood across the snow. Steam rises where the warm liquid melts the icy ground.

And suddenly I know where I am. For a split second I realize I must be dreaming, because this is a memory from another life, another planet, but the power of the memory is too strong. The smell of blood and the pounding fear are too vivid, and I am dragged along in the dream's violent current.

"Harness Light!" I scream as the Claw Beast turns, distracted. One of its hind legs strikes me and I am thrown backwards into the snow. I'm dazed for a moment. How did this happen? We were just crossing the fourth great ice field on a pilgrimage to one of the more famous Crystal Cities. The route was supposed to be safe. Now our guide is nowhere to be seen, lost in the blizzard kicked up by the Claw Beast's ambush, and Harness Light is bleeding out in front of me.

I stare helplessly down at my friend. His body has been severed into two pieces, the upper half resting a few feet away from me, bleeding heavily onto the snow around him. Without a new host or a cryotank he will be dead in minutes, and I have neither out here, stranded miles from the nearest city.

But I can't just leave him here to die.

If I could remove him, maybe I could protect him long enough to...to what? It is just me and our guide here on the ice, and in the blind whiteness of this snowstorm I might as well be alone. I don't think I could stay conscious long enough to insert him into my own host, and even if I could I'm not sure we would be able to share. Besides, alone out here on the ice we'd die quickly, bleeding onto the snow. Our guide may not even be alive. The Claw Beast may have--

The Claw Beast.

It's crazy, but it is Harness Light's only chance. I extract him as gently as I can, praying that my friend is too far gone to notice the extra pain. Clutching the quivering soul in the soft palm of my front two paws, I tuck him into my egg pouch and sprint toward the Claw Beast. If I can get a running start, I should be able to jump high enough onto the Beast that I can pull myself the rest of the way up using my ice cutting claws.

I make it to the creature's back and run up its double spine, toward the head. It thrashes beneath me but I keep running, digging in my claws when I reach the base of its neck. And then I am cutting, the long, sharp claws on my front two arms slicing back and forth. The Claw Beast's blood spills over its back, staining both of our fur red.

A voice in the back of my head warns that something is wrong, but Harness Light is slowly dying between my hearts, so I ignore it. I cut and cut but it seems as if the Beast's hide is miles thick. I've found a rhythm now: right arm-slice, left arm-slice, blink against the spurt of red.

Red.

That's what's wrong. It shouldn't be red. Claw Beasts bleed a color that doesn't exist on Earth, a neon-bright color. Not red.

Just as this realization sinks in, the scene shifts and I am suddenly sitting on Matt's chest in Doc's hospital. There is blood everywhere. I'm clutching a scalpel in each hand, covered in blood, and I'm cutting and cutting, I can't stop. I turn away from him and there, where Harness Light's host had been, is Melanie, bleeding and pale.