cold soul || rsl

3

"Hey." Maddie whispered in her soft and sweet voice that meant she had missed me.

Normally, I don't leave during the day to take souls. I just do it when it comes to the ones I've made a connection with or are too hard to take.

I didn't have to be there for a body to die. I had to be there to take the soul attached to that body. So, although people die every second of every day, I wasn't always there straight away.

That's why, sometimes, people see the 'ghost' of their loved ones some time after they die. The soul remains on the body until I get there to pick it up. There are also souls that refuse to leave. The ones who want to stay. Those are the ones who turn into wandering souls and just walk confused around Earth for eternity.

"You look... sad." She said wrapping her arms around my waist.

"I'm just thinking." I assured her, pulling her closer to my chest.

"You just took a soul, didn't you?" She asked again, studying me.

I nodded, she knew me too well.

"Was it a kid?"

I nodded again. "A boy." She said.

She understood it. We've talked about this before. There were so many things she wanted to know, and I didn't want her to worry. I'm never able to say no to that girl.

"When will he come back?"

"In six years."

"Who took it?"

"Ronnie."

"Oh, good. He'll like her."

I laughed. Ronnie wasn't the nicest person I've ever met, but for some strange reason Maddie liked her. Even when she thought she was a teenager who suffered from schizophrenia.

Maddie leaned her head against my shoulder and sighed. Death wasn't something she could deal with easily, but she was starting to understand it better.

Maddie's POV

The tree wasn't that tall. Wyatt didn't know anything. Just because I was a girl didn't mean I couldn't climb it. I'd show him. By the time he gets here, I'll be on my way to the top. That way he'll stop thinking girls can't do what boys do. Ha! We can do it better, because we're cooler.

Looking back to check if mom was watching me through the kitchen window, I grabbed onto the tree and started climbing it. Making sure I didn't look down in case I screwed up, I made my way to the top of the tree.

I smiled when I reached my goal. Wyatt and his stupid mouth would be shocked. It was just as hard as it would've been for a boy. Maybe, once he sees I'm just as cool as he is for climbing this tree, he'll let me get into his treehouse. That poster that read 'no girls allowed' was just plain stupid anyway. Mom said I should ignore them and let the boys have their special hiding place, but I couldn't do that. Not when it was me who came up with the treehouse idea in the first place. Besides, all Miranda wanted to do was do each other's makeup and paint our nails. Who would want to waste time that way? Not me.

My foot slipped and I held on for dear life onto some tree branch trying not to panic. I could do this. My hands started sweating and my arms started to weaken. This wasn't good. I moved my arm so I could grab onto another branch, but then my other foot slipped and I fell off the tree. This would hurt.