Lost Soul

Chapter Five

HELL

• is an afterlife location in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, often torture as eternal punishment after death.

Anne questioned my clothes when we met, she forced me to explain who I was with and where I was and what I was doing, I sprinkle tiny truths in my excuse, never hiding the fact that I was with Jake, although looking at the way she stared at me, I should have probably lied about that too.

The bell rang which gave me a little amount of time to recompose and rethink about my story, I wanted to comfort Anne in a way where she wouldn't clash into my future expenditures, I had to be ready of something like that happening again, I couldn't bear the thought of taking up more of Jake's time, after all, we barely knew each other yet we knew way too much at the same time.

We agreed to meet at lunch, going over the book Aliah had given us, although I liked to fool myself into thinking that Jake was alongside my adventure, it seemed to be the slightest bit of reality that Jake wanted to figure me out too, I guess with less desperation but I was glad we had the common goal of finding out the truth.

Lunch rolled by quickly than I thought and I soon found myself at our regular spot, hidden behind the rows of shelves. We soon found ourselves talking about the few chapters of the book, it seems that the truth and reason was harder to find than I thought.

My whole life revolved inside the orphanage, all of which were happy memories, Aunt Leah was the mother we all hoped for and Anne, Elaine and Melany were the sisters that anyone would have wished for, I grew up in a happy home but my soul is looking beyond that life. A life I've grown to forget. I've never felt like I didn't belong in my home, never felt like I had been abandoned, left for someone else to take care of, aunt Leah never reminded us of that too, her presence was enough for the dark past to be far behind us.

But to me, it seems to have caught up. The fear of knowing creeps up behind me, I didn't want to know why I was given up, neither did I want to meet who had given me up, they didn't deserve to see who I've become and I didn't want to meet them, this was the life I had now and I was happy living it but it seems people can never escape from the past even if they ran faster and faster, the past was like a shadow, waiting for the light to shine once again, when we'd be forced to face them, to acknowledge its presence, its been a long time since I thought about that.

"The only one who might know about my past would be my grandmother, and I don't know how that's possible" I slide further back down the wooden chair in defeat.

"I think I do" Jake's eyes squints in debate, he seems to do that a lot, overthink, although I really wouldn't blame him, there was a lot to think about and the matter wasn't to be taken lightly, it was my life after all, my soul on the line.

"If you're thinking of what I'm thinking, I'd really hate for you to be thinking that" I shake my head in disbelief that he would even consider that, I've watched enough horror movies to assume our next step, and having another ghost haunt me was not a favorable idea, but by the looks of it, we didn't seem to have much of a choice. And Jake seemed aware of that too.

"Look, I've seen ghosts my entire life and you've encountered one, a much scarier one" My hands instinctively found its way to my cheek, twice, I've encountered it twice.

"I know how much you're hurting, although I've never lost someone, I've felt what you felt once" He looks at me intently, reminding me of the night of our first encounter, where it all started.

"But if Aunt Leah might know, we need to try. You can't stay like this forever. Circumstances change and you don't know what might happen. Your family doesn't even know about this, it's worth it" His gaze holds determination, his thumb circling comforting strokes at the back of my hand.