River of Misery

Christopher

I wake up to see a note on my stomach and it says: You have to go to the River of Souls at midnight tonight by yourself. Do not allow yourself to have anyone follow you or involve anyone. Not if you want to see your sister alive again.

Of course, I follow the instructions on the note. I would do anything for my sisters. And I mean anything. So, I go to get ready for school. Like nothing was wrong.

Thirty minutes before midnight, I got to the bank of the River of Souls. The river is a rushing, life-threatening, beautiful body of water. It also runs through the middle of town. It is a popular destination of hard core partiers and junkies. Nobody with a sane bone in their body would voluntarily go to the banks of the vicious river.

Thankfully, I’m not all that sane.

Eventually, someone shows up in the distance. The person is leisurely strolling down the bank of the river. When the person is only a yard away, I could finally make out some of his features. He is tall with a tattoo of a dragon and a bear’s claw intertwined together on his cheek. His hair is a unique shade of blue and black and his eyes are a mercurial shade of silver. He has a dark tan and he is muscular.

The man with him has blond hair and blue eyes. He is tall, as well. But he was taller than the first one. He is thin and has pointed ears like an elf.

The one with the tat begins speaking to me, “Hello, Christopher. If you would come with me, you can see your sister and we can talk about the terms of release for her.”

So, with no other choices, I follow him into an alleyway. The tall, lanky guy, in turn, follows me. We continue deep into the shadowy parts of the alleyway. It is so dim, that it seems to hide the two men from my sight. When we could not go any further, the tattooed guy holds out his hand to me and, seeing no other alternative, I wearily take his hand.

The moment I touch his hand, I am transported to a dark room. And I don’t just mean the lighting in the room. I mean that the entire room is dark colored. All done in blacks and mahogany. But the thing taking all my attention is the figure on the bed. Her black hair is all around her head. Almost like a dark halo.

“Trinity,” I lightly breathe.

I rush to the side of the bed she’s on. I look her over...and breathe a sigh of relief. She was alright. The only thing that seems wrong: she seems to be in a drugged sleep.

I turn to the leader of the two, the tattooed dude, and hiss, “What’s wrong with her? The note said that she would be fine.”

“Calm down, boy. She’s fine. She is not drugged or anything. Trinity’s just in a deep sleep. Now, onto business. I want your soul in return of your sister’s freedom.”

I step back from him, “Are you on crack or something? I can’t give you my soul.”

He gives a rumbling laugh, “No, I’m not on drugs. You can give me your soul. It's relatively easy. All you do is follow my instructions during a ritual. Plus, as an incentive to go along with this, you get your beloved Trinity back home safely. What would you and your family do if she doesn’t make it home? Hmm?”

I glare at him as I reluctantly nod my head to agree to his ridiculous ramblings. I have no other option. We shake on it.

Grinning like a Cheshire cat, he says, “You cannot go back on that deal. Remember that as I finish telling you the details of your future. Then, we can get to the ritual. You and your soul belong to me, demi. That means for the rest of your very long life, I will own your ass. I can also trade you as I see fit. When you get a free minute in the future, you should ask your soulless brother over there,” he points to the other man, “about the finer details. Now, let’s get this party going.”

The three of us are on top of Mt. Claire. Rade, the tat dude’s name, finally called me over to him. He slices my right hand open to spill my blood into a large goblet. Once, that is done, he pulls out a bunch of sage and has me drop one into the goblet, rub one on my still bleeding hand and put it in his mouth, and put one with Rade’s blood in my mouth. I start to feel a tingling sensation in my head. It slowly becomes more painful and more wide spreading. Soon, I’m falling to my knees, clutching my head as I grit my teeth and groan.

The next thing that I remember: Rade cackling as I wake up with Jaden, the other man, helping me stand up. Jaden whispers in Rade’s direction, “Fool.”

I c**k my eyebrow at him, “What? Don’t you think that that is just the greatest thing on earth?”

He chuckles at me, “If you’re already cracking jokes, you are going to be fine,” Then, he starts to become more serious, “Alright, Chris. You will start to slowly feel more invincible. That’s normal. You will, also, be harder to kill and there will be slight physical changes to your appearance. Oh, and before I forget, you will gain a tattoo on your hand where Rade slashed your hand. That’s normal. Good thing for you, only other preternatural creatures will be able to see it. That means that, unlike you and me, your family will not be able to see anything. They won’t be able to see any of the physical changes at all. And be careful, there will be mood swings for the first month. Don’t kill anyone. Got it? I’ve programed my contact info into your phone. Oh, and I’ll be transferring to your school starting Monday.”

I look at him and digest all that information. Finally, I sigh and nod, “Great. I think we are going to get along just great. Now, can you help get Trinity and I home?”

He nods and sets about doing just that.