Day 264 - Soulcatcher

 Soulcatcher

Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

Where had all the souls gone, wondered Duncan. His soulcatchers were bare. They had been for days. The numbers had been dropping for weeks and months, but they had absolutely cratered this past month. There had been none. The odds were against it. It didn’t seem natural. Duncan worried something was amiss.

Duncan lived in the woods, basically in the middle of nowhere. There was no good reason for so many free-souls to find their way to him, other than perhaps the fact that he had so many soulcatchers and that he was a good soul known for setting them free.

His aura or the energy emitted from his property acted as a lighthouse or a beacon. He liked the idea that he was a soul-beacon lighting up the dark and lonely night, and the free-souls couldn’t resist coming his way.

He had made hundreds of soulcatchers and hung them everywhere on his property he could think of. The field was full of them, as were the woods. He had them hanging from the house, the barn and laundry lines. He had so many, he couldn’t check them all in a single day’s time.

Where were they, if not here? People hadn’t stopped dying. Souls were still exiting bodies. Was someone stealing them? His brother Saul had been a thief. The soulcatchers were his idea. But he had wanted to use the souls they captured. Duncan wanted to set them free. But that had been years ago and Saul had come around to seeing things Duncan’s way. Or had he?

“Have you noticed?” Duncan asked his brother Saul.

The line was silent for a moment.

“You’re talking about the free-souls, aren’t you?”

“You’re not using, are you?”

“Fuck you. Always fun talking to you.”

“I’m just asking. I’m… concerned.”

Saul had been able to distill what was special in each soul and take a little bit for himself. The abilities never really lasted, but it was an exciting ride while it lasted. Duncan was embarrassed to admit he had partaken in the process. He believed in releasing the souls he found, spending some time with them as friends and then helping them to cross over to wherever they were bound to go. He would hate to any of those he had helped that he had also used one or two along the way.

Duncan apologized and explained what had been happening at his home.

“It’s the same here. From what I’ve heard, it’s the same everywhere.”

“Everywhere?”

“Yeah. Maybe it means free-souls are staying with their hosts. Or its become easier to cross over into the next world.”

“Or there’s a soul thief.”

“Yeah. Maybe a soul thief.”

“What do you think?”

“Odds are there have to be some out there. But on this scale? That would be nearly impossible. To do this around the world. All at once. All the time. They’d need to be the nexus of some massive spiritual energy.”

“And that’s possible?”

“I guess.”

“You guess? You’re supposed to be the expert on this stuff.”

“Expert? I never claimed I was an expert.”

“Well, the catchers were your idea.”

“Yeah, I had one good idea in like the last decade. Most of my time anymore is spent trying to meditate and find some other spiritual parallel world where I made better choices. I’m hardly an expert.”

“Were you able to do it?”

“Find another me? No. No. Not at all. I sleep better at night. My blood pressure and anxiety are way way down. But that’s about it.”

“Jesus. What are we going to do?”

“Um, I don’t know. Nothing. It’s not your job. You were doing some free-souls a favor by being a good guy. I don’t think it’s up to you to save the whole world.”

“I don’t like you sometimes.”

“Sure. Blame me for being practical.”

“Is there a lost and found or a missing soul tracking system or anything like that? Someone you can talk to or call? Like a council?”

“I know some people, but we’re not really that organized.”

“Can you do it? For me? Maybe meditate and see if you can find any souls floating around out there?”

“I will try. But be careful. If there is some massive power out there stealing or consuming free-souls, then they’re gonna know about you and that property of yours. You have the largest collection of soulcatchers I’ve ever heard of. Sooner or later, someone is gonna come looking to see what you’ve got.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better at all.”

“It wasn’t meant to. Please be safe. Move, go somewhere else, get out of there. But if you stay, please be safe. I’ll ask around and try to send you a mental message later on.”

“You can do that?”

“We’ll find out. If the phone doesn’t ring, you’ll know it’s me.”

 

 

Additional reading: Soul Catcher Story - The Daily Fischer - Story# 264, September 21, 2013