Seeking Souls

:// Chapter 37 //:

Weeks ago, during a public ambush organized by Jasper and Synthia Nightingale. During, Synthia managed to move part of his soul into a Net, a device specially made to hold souls. Before now, the was the worst pain he's probably ever felt in his life.

But now as Elizabeth Bolton, the mother to the love of his life, viciously dug through his rib cage in order to physically tear out his soul, nothing else could compare. He often wondered how he could possibly still be alive, but he had a feeling that the black slug oozing out of the Reaper's pores was to blame as it easily mixed in with his blood.

Besides that, and the horrendous amount of pain, his mind drifted back to Zakariah: "Where was he? Was he safe? Elizabeth mentioned her Space and Jasper, but Zakariah's handled him before. He could do it again, can't he?"

Basil wasn't sure as he stared at the grizzled mess Elizabeth had become. Her eyes were a furious green surrounded by pools of shadows and black. She looked crazed as she shoved blurry bloodied pieces of light into her mouth.

His head hit the floor. "Talk about hating the In-Laws." He joked to himself. Some part of him hoped that Zakariah would hear it, but his precious Reaper was far away from him, and the Human was too far gone to find him.

Still, Basil smiled to the pleasant memories of his loved one as the world faded into black.

~%~

Once again, Zakariah threw a punch so swift and powerful that it sent Jasper tumbling across the dark Space. This fight, whatever it was, felt futile. Jasper was trying his damnedest to do something, but it was obvious that whatever it was it wasn't working.

Jasper groaned on what could be perceived as the ground of this place. Though it was hard to tell, given that this place was mostly solid black. Only recently did wisps of lights begin to illuminate the area. Zakariah idly wondered why, but it was hard to think on much of anything when his mind kept bouncing between defending himself from Jasper and obsessively worrying about Basil.

"Jasper stop." Zakariah kicked the mutilated Reaper over. He was gripping his ribs, but not because they were broken. Upon closer, non-violent, inspection Zakariah could see the black sludge seeping out every time Jasper coughed. "There's no point to this."

"There's little point to anything we do." Jasper grinned with charcoal teeth. "For decades we wandered with no purpose other than to live, but why? Where did we come from? Who are our parents? What did we live for?"

Zakariah rolled his eyes. "I don't need this history lesson, I was one of the first-"

"And yet you don't know a damn thing." Jasper spat. "I envy that; she told me everything we once served, and now I want nothing more than to go back to my ignorant days..."

"She?" Zakariah knelt beside the dying man. He's never seen a sickness that could overtake a Reaper, but this seemed more like a powerful poison than anything that could naturally pose a threat.

"Your mother." Jasper stubbornly kept up his smirk despite the stabs of pain throughout his body. "Elizabeth's venom is rotting me from the inside out. She likes to call it her 'influence' because she can use it to puppeteer her lessers."

"You're just a distraction." Zakariah spoke with a sickening feeling.

"This is her Space, and yet she's not here..." Jasper curled up into a ball as a violent coughing fit ruptured what was left of his insides. His broken figure on the ground was so pitiful that Zakariah actually felt for the monster.