Page 6 of A Soul to Steal

What use was there having human emotions and physical pain when he was nothing but a Ghost?

Fuck, Beau, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I left you behind. Gosh, is my dog still alive?Gideon had no doubt that Beau, who worked in the same profession, would have taken his dog as his own.

Dex, his three-year-old Cattle dog, had been the sweetest, most loving boy.

He’d been trained to alert them of incoming Demons. Many of those who worked outside the town’s protective walls kept dogs, and Gideon had been no different. Dex had saved his life, and his fellow woodcutters’, twice.

Are you having a nice life, boy? Does Beau feed you well and scratch your cheeks for being a good dog?Despite knowing he was likely being cared for, it still hurt that he wasn’t the one to do so.

Gideon didn’t realise how badly his thoughts had spiralled until the Duskwalker retracted his arms.

“Am I causing you to be afraid?”Aleron asked quietly, as though truly concerned by that possibility.

“What?” Gideon choked. “Why would I be afraid?”

He was dead! How could he be afraid of anything now?

“I cannot smell anything, not even your scent, but you are shaking.”Aleron said this, yet he didn’t fully pull away. Both of his long legs were still bent and resting against Gideon’s sides.“I did not mean to make you uncomfortable.”

What made him uncomfortable was howgruffand pleasant he found his voice just next to his ear.

The hell? Why is he being so damn nice?How could a monster be this considerate? It made little sense.

Still, the gentler side of Gideon said, “No, this isn’t because of you.” He palmed his cheeks, attempting to remove the evidence of his tears, before swiping the back of his wrist against his nose. “I just... I have a lot on my mind. A lot to absorb.”

“What are these then?”The back of a long, sharp, and glossy black claw swiped just below his eye, stealing a fresh teardrop.“I thought humans only produced liquid from their eyes when they are afraid.”

“I’m guessing you’ve only seen humans when they are afraid, then,” Gideon grumbled, before finally turning to look at the creature trapping him.

His long, spiral goat horns stuck up from his head, reminding him of a sketch of an evil devil he’d once seen. Aleron’s bat skull tilted as Gideon stared at them. In his empty, bony eye sockets, glowing orbs shone dark yellow at him – not that Gideon knew what it signified.

“This is true,”he replied honestly, without a shred of negative infliction.Aleron never opened his fangs to speak, and it made him wonder where his voice came from.“Why do you produce this liquid then, if you are not afraid?”

“We cry because we are sad too. Sometimes when we’re happy, but it’s usually because we are upset.”

Gideon could count how many times he’d cried as an adult on one hand, but he didn’t think he’d ever been this shockedor upset before in his life. Maybe it would have been best if he hadn’t awoken at all in this world.

“But you are not upset because of me. What is causing you tocrythen, little human?”

Gideon opened his mouth to yell at him in outrage at his question. Wasn’t it fucking obvious? What person wouldn’t undoubtably be upset that they were no longer alive?

However, he quickly shut his mouth when he realised he wasn’t talking to a human. What would a monster know?

He gave a sigh and dropped his head. He only raised it when he answered, peering out at this world.

He doesn’t even know what crying is. I bet his kind can’t even cry.

“I’ve lost... everything. I had my whole life ahead of me, and now I have nothing. I want to go home. I miss my friends, my partner, my family, my dog. I miss the house I was renting and how it smelled like burnt wood from the fireplace. I’m upset because I left all that too early, and there are likely people who suffered because of that. I’m crying because my chest hurts, and I don’t know how else to ease it when there is nothing I can do from here.” Gideon’s eyes bowed when he realised he was explaining all this to a creature who didn’t have any of this. “You probably don’t understand, so don’t worry about it.”

The silence from the Duskwalker was telling.

He probably lived in the forest like an animal, hunting for food.He wouldn’t have had a partner, a pet, a home to miss.

Gideon knew he had a brother, but he’d gotten the chance to meet him after only being separated for what... a month? That wasn’t the same as the eight years he’d lost, and the people he’d left behind that wouldn’t get any closure.

He felt for those people, and everything they had suffered in his absence.

Once more, the back of Aleron’s cool claw stole another stray tear. In his peripheral, Gideon watched him inspect it as it slid down the curve of his claw.

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