CHAPTER 8:
Soul Reckoning
I appeared back in the amusement park, outside the blue dome. I was standing in a square rimmed with flowers. People and children with balloons streamed around me.
Ladouche appeared on the other edge of the square. He smoothed down his suit, and then held out his hands. “Bebe, I’m immensely proud of you,” he said, stepping toward me. “Do you have the souls?”
I unlatched my messenger bag, and the souls swirling inside gave off an intense light that made him shield his eyes.
“Give them to me,” he said.
“Tell me why you need them. Tell me the truth.”
“I told you, it’s for science.”
“I went through a lot to get these souls,” I said. “I’m going to have to pay the consequences for the rest of my life. There won’t be a night that passes when I don’t think about e
