Original Sin

The Second Spirit (Chapter 4)

Alex searches, but cannot find any trace of the other spirit.
Anger spits inside his head.
You had one job.
"It's been a year since the last wave of spirits!" Alex retorts, "I'm just out of practice! Why don't you try and track them down?"
I cannot.
"What do you mean 'cannot'?"
Something is changing. My powers are - different.
Alex pauses. "How so?"
I can no longer access them. However, you can, and they seem more powerful.
Both stop and contemplate the implications of this.
"Take control," Alex commands suddenly.
What?
"You heard. Take control like you used to."
Alex feels it; claws sink into his conscience, as Anger tries to pull itself to the front, supplanting his own soul for its hellish heart.
But it cannot pull past him.
Alex's vision blurs, but he remains standing at the forefront of his own mind. Anger howls, but cannot take the reins.
Something is blocking me.
"What?" Alex asks.
Now Anger pauses.
You are.

The white spirit exhales gently, watching the smoke pour out from its holder's mouth and rise into the Autumn air.
"I don't like heights," the wretch mumbles.
Quiet.
It watches through their terrified blue eyes, surveying the land for a sign of... something. It doesn't know what. But it will when it sees it.
"This...Anger," the host continues, "what business do you have with them?"
The spirit chuckles.
Everything. But we need to draw it out with an offering. Rumours in the Waiting Room state that it's killed the other spirits that it found itself with. We need to get it on our side.
"Waiting Room?"
Why, yes. Or, as the First Ones call it, the Spirit Realm.

"How could I be blocking you? I've never been able to hold you back before."
Things may be becoming different, Anger replies.
"Why? Why would they change now?" Alex presses.
You know why.
Anger takes one of Alex's memories, and shows it to him. Two people stand in front of him, and a third sits down on folder-out cardboard boxes.
Alex nearly sobs. The young girl with brown hair is Silence, a mute until Greed fixed her vocal cords, and the man in colourful clothing is Tom, the holder of Pride.
"They were going to kill you eventually."
If you believed so much that your friends would stay beside you, why would they do this?
"Anger is change."
"Is Spirit Law changing?" Alex wonders aloud.
Maybe.
"Why now?"
Because no spirit ever outlives the others.
"How do you know that?"
If we could, then we could not guarantee that we would all return at the same time. Yet, we come back, normally within months of each other. Something has to keep is bound so that no one Spirit survives for much longer than the others.
"How is that possible?"
Anger pauses again.
I do not know. Memories of past incarnations are fuzzy and distant. I would not remember much even if I tried.
"But Sloth and the other holders seemed to have some inkling of past conflicts. Why do they have that, but you don't?"
I ... Do not know.
The two fall silent, until Alex speaks again.
"So, your powers may be changing because we survived this time? Because we've made it a whole year since the others died, and are still alive?"
Perhaps.
"And could there be any other changes?"
Like?
Alex hesitates, but Anger, linked to his mind, knows what he thinks before he puts it into words.
"Could other spirits be leaving the Spirit Realm?"
Anger emits a throaty growl.
Anything is possible.

Something was scratching.
Alex looks up at the ceiling. He might not need it, or visit often, but he has a sparse, cheap flat that he sometimes calls home. There's no carpet, no furniture, and no electricity, as well as there being a rat problem, the source of the sounds above him. All in all,it's the perfect place for someone with violent tendancies.
Alex clenches a fist, and then splats his fingers wide apart. The ebony sabres that spring out over his nails are longer than every, but they flicker slightly.
"Your power is dwindling," he states absent mindedly.
I can't stop it.
It's been a day since they sensed the other spirit. Now Alex too is feeling the effects of Anger's power loss.
"Why is this happening? Why now? Why haven't we felt this before?"
I do not know. I have never survived this long in a single host.
Alex perks up. "A single host?"
Yes.
"So, you have between multiple hosts?"
Anger snorts.
We used to transfer between bodies to spread the seeds for our arrival in our true forms. Now that we are without, it has been 2000 of your years since I have walked this earth for 12 months.
Alex breathes.
"How could we restore your power?"
Restore it?
"Surely we could do that. If your power decreased over time naturally, you would be nearly powerless now. But I'm guessing that this is the first time you've weakened."
It is.
"So what changed?"
Images flash through Alex's mind; the blood, guts and gore; Silence, as she collapsed into nothingness; Envy shrieking; Lust's seductive gaze...
Alex sits up.
"That's what changed. You haven't been killing spirits."
Anger huffs.
So what if we haven't? Why does that-
"Hear me out," Alex interrupts, "Remember how each spirit had conditions in which it was strongest?"
Yes.
"We never figured out what yours were. Now, suppose you maintain yours by having something to be angry about..."
Anger grins.
Like the other spirits. The fact I could lose immortality to them.
"This new spirit... It could be what you need to power up again."
Anger roars, an unfettered challenge to the world that does not know it exists.
Alex flicks out his talons again. They don't flicker at all.