The Contract

"By putting a human spirit to slumber...you mean?"

She grinned and swiped her thumb across her neck. "Death."

"Death?!" I nearly rose to my feet. "You have to kill people so that you could go back?"

"Killing humans is not counted." She glanced at me and when she saw that I was looking at her with horror, she sighed. "Shall I start by explaining the contract? Then from there, we can slowly move to other topics."

I shook my head. "I'm a spontaneous person. I don't like following orders to a T."

"Me neither." She grinned again and the childish look on her face whenever she smiles fascinated me. She looked so scary when she's serious though. "That's why we have to map this conversation carefully. Otherwise, I have a feeling that we will go in circles."

I nodded. "Okay. Take the lead. I'll try not to stray."

"First, do you understand now what I am?" She looked at me with anticipation.

I nodded. "You're a Shadow. You were Arthur's shadow. Not mine."

"Oho! You're smarter than I thought!" She clapped her hands and praised me like a kid, but instead of feeling insulted, I felt proud of myself. "Yes, I was Arthur's shadow. Arthur was scheduled to die, so a reaper came to severe our thread and I went to submit my record for him to Headquarters. After submitting the record, I received a vessel from HQ. But when I came back to pick up his spirit and put it to slumber..."

I raised my chin trying to guess her next word then I narrowed my eyes at her while giving my answer. "He's not dead."

"Bingo! And he's equipped with a full gym package." She laughed while shaking her head. "So, I immediately called HQ to check what was going on. But like I told you earlier, the Guardians are busy people. And with a deadly pandemic breaking out in another world, Azrael was swamped with work and was very hard to contact."

"Azrael…" That was the name of the guy that she was speaking to on the phone. So he was a Guardian and not a hitman. Then the name finally lit a bulb. "Azrael… the Angel of Death?"

"Oho! You seem to know your books, human. Were you a good boy in the other world?" She leaned over with excitement.

I pushed her forehead with my forefinger. "No comment. Next question please."

"I'm taking that as a 'no' then. It's okay. There's no need to be shy about it." She scrunched her face with a smile. "So yeah, when you finally woke up, I touched you to confirm your identity. I couldn't do it while you were unconscious. That was when I confirmed that you are not the subject that I severed my ties with."

"Subject?"

"Ah. That's what we call our human partners. Stop distracting me! Where was I?" She tapped her chin with her finger. "Ah! Yes. Azrael. Luckily, I was able to get in touch with Azrael and he confirmed that you are from a different world. And my subject has already been put to slumber by your Shadow."

"So she practically ran away with your ticket?" I could not help but laugh at the situation.

She closed her eyes and stretched her neck, trying to control her anger. "And I hope she gets punished for it. So yeah... Azrael said that you're not yet due to die and he doesn't know how the mix up happened."

"Why didn't you just send me back to where I came from?" I was hopeful that she would say that I could still go back.

"We couldn't do that. You were a Pure Soul when I found you. That's what we call humans without a Shadow." She hesitated before she continued. "And Pure Souls are susceptible to having their Light Orbs stolen from them because there is no Shadow to conceal it. Your Light Orb is your life source. If someone steals that from you, you will die."

"Someone is stealing life forces?" I scratched my head. "Are they vampires or something?"

She snickered with disgust. "He's the very core of those legends. The first man capable of sucking out Light Orbs: Caius."

I felt offended by the idea of some man sucking out my life force. If it was a lady, it would have been tolerable. "Is he playing Catch 'em All? He's not even Dracula. What's his deal?"

She shrugged. "I don't know the whole story as well. He's been at it way before I was dispatched. All I knew was that if he got his hands on your Light Orb, it would give him more power. And the people closest to you will be the first to suffer."

"Was that what you meant when you said that Zeanne would be the first to die if I don't make a contract with you?" My eyes rounded in surprise. She was not the bad guy after all!

"I'm not the good guy either." She smiled after reading my thoughts. "I'm just using you as my ticket to go back home. The earlier you die, the better for me. But you're not allowed to commit suicide. That's a taboo."

I put my hands against her ears. "Stop reading my thoughts! Let me exercise my rights to privacy."

She smiled and flicked my forehead with her finger which forced me to let her go. "The contract that you made with me is an Impurification Contract. In layman's terms, you are hiring me to taint your Pure Soul. That means giving me access to your innermost desires and learning everything about you from head to toe. So your precious privacy policy is bullshit against me."

"That's sick!" I complained.

"That's my job." She smiled haughtily. "The length of time for the contract to be completed will vary depending on the strength of your Light Orb. That is to say, it will be completed faster if your lifespan is shorter. Or so I've been told..."

I looked at her suspiciously. "Other than invading my privacy, are there any other side effects to this contract that I must know about?"

She shrugged. "I really have no idea. It's my first time making this contract. The only other Shadow that had a contract with a Pure Soul never made it back to the Darkness. So there were no records of her experience in our database."