The Soul, Part 1

Looking in horror, I feel the urge to throw up, reflex causing me to cover my mouth with two hands.

After a few seconds the feeling dissolves, holding in my puke as I relax my body.

"What's going on?" I ask, unaware of how I'm not dead.

Suddenly, the scenery changes again, and the skies change from a somber yellow hue to a darker night sky.

I look down to see I'm in my old body, concerned as to what's going on.

ZWIP!

Suddenly, a car blasts past me, blowing my hair up. Still in a daze from the spontaneous change in scenery, I take in what information I can, looking around to observe that I'm on a road.

Not just any road; a 3-lane highway.

HONK, HONK, HONK!

Turning around, a car traveling around 70 mph dashes towards me, motioning me to move out of the way.

Jumping out of its direction, I fall on my knees as my heart starts racing.

"What's going on!"

SLAM!

Ramming into me, a pickup truck ragdolls my body, smashing my bones to smithereens as consciousness fades away.

Leaving my body again, I yell out.

"Where am I!"

In my earth body again, I hug my stomach, remembering the fresh pain I'd felt when I died.

Staggering in remembrance despite how quick it was, I checked my surroundings, making sure I wasn't on another highway or fighting a big monster-thing.

Shocked by my environment, I released all tension, good memories surfacing again.

It was my old math class, with Ms. Long at the front.

Directly in front of me was a table longer in width, a guy situated to my left.

The class was large in size, tables assorted by three five-long rows spanning from the front of the class to the back. Plastered on all the surrounding walls were posters composed of math equations, funny jokes, and pictures of students that one would assume were close to the teacher.

There were three movable whiteboards at the front, the teacher focused on one with equations for trigonometry written.

"Kevin, what do you think?" The teacher questioned, looking me in the eye.

I was roused, being taken off guard by the sudden mention of my name, one I hadn't heard in years.

Looking at the equation, it was a right triangle, a 45-45-90 to be exact.

"It's root 2 over 2" I responded, knowledge flooding my brain as I'd been forced to recall information I didnt need to use in Laron's yet.

"Great. But why did you leave?" The teacher queried, a dark, grim frown looming as her face turned uncanny.

Simultaneously, the other students turned around, all darkened with black mouths and bleeding eyes as they asked the same question.

"Why did you leave?" They all said, slowly walking towards me.

Scared I got up from my seat, running while facing towards them until I reached the back wall, searching for the door with my hand as I didn't want to risk exposing my back to them.

Finding the door, I turned around to jump out of the door, looking down to see there was no hallway on the other side, positioned 5 stories up.

By the time I'd noticed, it was too late, hanging on to the doorknob as I'd been holding on for dear life, the rest of my body hanging down.

As they got closer, they asked again,

"Why did you leave? Why did you leave? Why did you leave?" With the teacher in front, she positioned her hands over mine, peeling mine off finger by finger as she smiled down at me.

"Please, no! I'm sorry!" I yelled out, hungry for survival.

Finally, when she peeled off every finger but my middle and index, she slammed my hand with hers, causing me to lose grip.

Fwooooo!

As the wind blew past me—or perhaps the other way around—time seemed to move in slow motion, allowing me to suffer just that much more.

Closing my eyes, I brace for impact, hoping for a quick death.

Thud!

My body slammed into the ground, consciousness fading again.

My soul was outside my body again, staring down at the disfigured remains of what used to be me.

"Terminus, stop this! Tell me what's happening!" I yelled, hoping for some explanation.

No response.

Desperate, I closed my eyes, hoping to find some tether of sorts that could trace back to the origin of… this.

Sensing a thread attached to my soul, I pulled on it with my will, slowly unraveling the reality.

Like yarn, everything was turned to string as my surroundings turned to white, revealing Terminus' realm again.

Sitting in the air was Terminus, a smile plastered on his face.

"What was that!" I yelled, hoping for some rational explanation.

'Your soul realm!' Terminus yelled excitedly, irking me just that much greater.

"You bastard! Why did you send me to that… thing! It was painful, and it wouldn't stop…"

'Hey, calm down! This is all to help you. See, everybody has their own soul, right?' He asked, awakening my inquisitive spirit.

"Correct…" I answered back, still angry at the prospect he sent me to such a painful reality with little warning.

'But what differentiates the soul? Do you know?" Terminus asked.

"Viscosity."

'Oh, so you don't know? While viscosity does play a part, that doesn't begin to explain what makes you, you."

Flying up into the air, he snapped his fingers, bringing to vision a world of bright colors and happy parades.

'The soul. Beautiful in structure, made up of itsy bitsy magicules, each with its own will.' Showing a vision of small, blue particles, he continued.

'They're metaphysical in structure, invisible to the naked eye. Now, why do you think souls have different viscosities?'

Thinking long and hard, I think of what would concentrate a denser amount of magicules.

If they have individual wills, it would be more like…

"Because different magicules have different wills, and so they desire different things. Therefore, they attach to each other based off of how many magicules share a common will."

'Correct! You really are the best, perhaps even my #1 pupil.' Blushing a bit at his praise, I let him continue.

'Yes, different people attract different magicules for different reasons. In your case, your magicules enjoy the aspect of killing, so they'd be proficient in necromancy.'

Raising my brows in shock, I could only mutter gasps of air out of pure shock.

Necromancy? I'm not fond of killing or even violence for that matter… I hate fighting.

"Could I learn other applications of the soul?" I asked, hoping for some affirmation that I'm not forced to go down that route.

'Yes, you could learn any application, but magicules respond to will, and forcing them to do something outside of their spectrum would prove difficult, though it has been done in the past.'

Raising my fist out of excitement, I settled down, deciding to inquire even further.

"Okay, how exactly do I obtain one of these soul powers?"

Terminus quickly responded, already having an answer prepared.

'You have to delve into your soul realm again, except of your own accord.'