Chapter 9-Understanding

When Callum left for work that morning, he saw an irritated Sarah waiting for him.

"What the hell was in that orb?" She demanded.

"A soul." Callum replied nonchalantly. "What of it?"

"My cat turned into a panther!" She exclaimed. "How do you explain-"

Callum cut her off.

"I can explain souls no better than you can explain your ability to manipulate lightning." He said mildly. "And even if I could, I wouldn't."

"And why wouldn't you?" She asked, exasperated.

"Because learning is half the fun." Callum smiled, moving past her.

"Okay, you got me there." She resigned herself to a long, drawn-out explanation over several days.

"Wait." She moved in front of him. "How can I feed my cat now? Do I need to buy souls from you or something?"

"The one soul can replenish energy for your cat to eat over time." He replied. "I wouldn't mind it if you took some fresh corpses to me for soul extraction, though."

She looked at him, trying to tell wheter or not he was joking.

"You're joking, right?" She wanted to make sure.

"Nope. I need dead people to extract souls." He replied. "I use souls to grow my own power as well."

She let him move past her, processing what he just said.

"Hey." She turned and ran after him for one last question. "Did you kill Shawn?"

"He attacked Stardust first." Callum sounded like he didn't care. He really didn't. They were blocking his path of vengeance.

"How did the knife shatter?" She asked.

"You'll see with your own pet." He replied, waving her off. "Your pet will show you when it's ready."

....

That night, Callum went to the graveyard with Sarah. He wanted to make sure she trusted him.

They didn't know each other very well. Before, she was merely an acquaintance, a friend of his brother's. Now, he felt they were two of a kind, the first or the last of something greater for themselves.

"Watch closely." He said, sticking his arm in a turquoise crack.

She gasped. "Where did your arm go?" She exclaimed.

"Into another dimension, l think." He repIied. "I don't actually know."

Pulling out a grapefruit-sized soul, he explained his best guesses about tiers and power.

"My best guess is that colour is grade, where violet is the best." He began his simplest explanation. "And size is the indicator for power."

"How big was Shawn's core?" She asked.

"You know the small Cutie oranges?" He asked.

She nodded.

"Half that size."

Her brows raised. "Is it about strength of the soul, then?" She wondered aloud. "One's willpower, perhaps?"

"I think it's the former." Callum said. "It can't be willpower because the children who died all had turquoise souls. Children have very little willpower."

"So Shawn had an incredibly pathetic soul, then?" She asked.

"Probably." Callum said. "Also, how can you speak so normally about someone who almost raped you?"

"Well, he's dead." She said, sighing. "That helps alot."

Callum nodded. "Once someone is dead, unless you have a firm attachment to them, you will rapidly start to view them neutrally."

He handed the core he just pulled out to Stardust so Sarah could see how he ate.

"How does it restore energy from the core?" She asked.

"I have no idea." Callum said in defeat. "I also have no idea how I got this ability, why I have it, and how I'm going to avenge Salem."

He felt tears of helplessness and anger well up in his eyes.

"I have to forge a path of vengeance that has been untrodden for centuries." He said, laying his hand on a tombstone and pulling out another orb.

"I have no information on the killer and no way of obtaining information on the killer."

Callum reached his limit for the extracted souls. Absorbing one, he turned and began leaving the graveyard.

"I only hope that I can avenge him before I die." Callum said, knowing such a task was likely impossible.