Paul Kohler - The Borrowed Souls, A Novel

“Hey, relax, buddy, I’m coming back. Between me and any number of other Sentinel members, we’ll be able to bag Enoch with ease. Of that I am certain,” Hauser said.

“Just be careful, then,” I said, stepping back into the living room. “Wait, before you go, Hauser, you never told me your last name. What is it?”

Hauser smiled widely. “It’s Teufel. It’s German for the devil. It was agreed upon that I would not use it in the afterlife.”

“Ah, wise choice,” I said.

Hauser winked, then he vanished.

I stood by for several minutes, wishing I had said more to Hauser before he left. Now, he’d never know really how much he truly meant to me.

I returned to the living room and found Penny staring up at the ceiling, looking lost.

“How are you feeling, champ?” I asked, borrowing a moniker from Hauser’s vocabulary.

She blinked her thoughts away and looked up at me, then smiled. “I’m… I’m feeling okay, but I’ve been better,” she said, her voice a little rough.

“I’d imagine so. You nearly died.”

Penny sat up and leaned awkwardly against the back of the couch. “No, there was no almost about it. I did die. I was dead, Jack.”

“Ah, technicalities. At least you’re here now, right?” I said, hoping her suicidal tendencies had passed.

“I suppose, but I would liked to have stayed dead just a little longer.”

Surprised by her answer, I asked, “Why is that? Does that mean that you’re still wanting to give up?”

Penny shrugged. “I—I’m not sure yet. When I was… there, I saw my brother. I would’ve liked to talk to him, but there wasn’t enough time. One minute I was walking toward him and he smiled at me. Then a moment later I was pulled away. It was so brief.”

“I don’t know what to say, Penny. I didn’t know what you just described was even possible. I thought that once a soul was collected, it was reincarnated into another living being. What you just described certainly gives me hope,” I said, trying to maintain my composure until my final plan was put into motion.

“Yeah, me neither. At least I was able to see him for a moment, and he looked happy. And that makes me happy.”

“That’s great, Penny,” I said. “But where does that leave you and your situation? Are you still feeling depressed? Are you still contemplating suicide?”

“I don’t know, Jack. I don’t know what to think. With everything that I’ve witnessed since first meeting you, I’m confused more than anything else. Nothing can change the fact that I am alone on this earth. And before you go on telling me that I can make friends, let me just say that being alone is not a terribly bad situation for me. I have been alone for so long, I’ve learned to crave the solitude.”

I raised my eyebrows at that.

“But at the end of the day, I don’t think I’m ready to turn in my soul.”

“Well then, I think today is your lucky day,” I said as I sat next to her on the couch. I reached in my pocket and pulled out my coin and my rosary before setting them both on the couch between us.

Penny sat up and looked down at the two items. “What are those?”

“Those are tools of the trade, so to speak. One can take you into the past, and one can take you into the future.”

Then I removed the glass vial that Hauser had given me and set it on the couch next to the other items. Finally, I removed the two soul boxes and held them in my hands.

“This is everything I have in my possession, Penny. And I want you to have it all.”

“But won’t you need them? You know, for your job and all?”

“That’s the thing, Penny. I want you to have it all because I think you should take my soul so you can continue living in the afterlife.”

“So you’re just going to quit?” Penny asked.

“Well it’s not like I’ve just right now made this decision. I’ve thought about this for a while now, and as time has gone along, I’ve felt more and more out of place in the afterlife than I ever did in my past life,” I said.

“It’s your life, man. But what makes you think that I’ll be any better at this job than you?”

“The last six months have been the most difficult of my life. It’s hard to explain. I think for starters I miss the personal interaction. I thought I’d be able to get by in the solitude, but in the end, that wasn’t so much the truth. Secondly, I seem to want to save every soul I come across. I wanted to save you well before it was a plan to do so. I did in fact save the two souls right before yours, but Enoch put an end to that. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.”

“And you think by dying you’ll suddenly get to walk and talk with everyone, just like before?” Penny asked.

“Listen, I’m not sure what the right answer is here. I really don’t know what to expect after you take my soul. All I know is that being a collector is not for me.”

“And you think it is for me?”

“From everything you’ve told me, you’d be a perfect fit for this.”

“I don’t know, Jack. I wouldn’t even know where to start,” Penny said, eyeing all of the trinkets sitting between us.

“Well that’s the glory of this. Hauser will no doubt be your trainer, just as he’s been my trainer, and probably the trainer of most of the soul collectors in the last century and a half.”

Penny’s eyes widened. “Damn, how old is he?”

“I don’t recall offhand, but I think he said that he died somewhere around 1810? Don’t quote me on that. I’ll let him tell you about his own life at his own pace.”

“And how about you? How old are you?”

“Me? I’m not that old at all. I was thirty-five when I killed myself, and I’ve only been here in the afterlife for six months, like I said. You see, things are different here. You continue to age, but at an eighth of the pace that the rest of the world does. There’s some strange things that happen with time and how it passes, which I haven’t quite figured out. Maybe that’s the first thing you should talk to Hauser about.”

“Slow down, man. I haven’t agreed to any of this yet, and you are continuing to talk to me like I have.”

“I’m confident that you, being a youthful person, will be able to cope with the demands of being a soul collector much easier than I have.”

“What kind of demands are there?”

“Well, Penny, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it for you. You have to take the souls of people that are dying. The Sentinel, which at some point you will probably meet, will demand that you take each soul that comes into your trust, without question. That is the single most difficult part of this job. That and the loneliness, for me.”

“I think that part I would thrive on,” Penny said.

“You will have some perks as well. Namely, you can travel by thought. You think of a location or a destination and within moments you are there. Quite handy when you really want to get away from it all,” I said jokingly.

“And what about all this stuff?” Penny asked, motioning to the items between us.

“Well, the coin will allow the holder to review parts of their life. For example, if you were to pick up the coin and turn it over in your hand, you could think back to a place or a time and relive that moment. I, as your soul collector, would also live through that moment with you. It also can be used, has been used on me a number of times, to recall past memories that have been forgotten.”

“Wicked.”

“And this,” I said, picking up the rosary, “will allow you to go forward in time, up to twenty-four hours, and witness anticipated events.”

“Anticipated?” Penny asked.