Souls Apart (Book 1 in the Lost Souls Trilogy) (5 page)

“How do you know all this?”

“I just do.
 
We
writers are very sensitive to these things.”

“So you don’t believe in God but you believe in
reincarnation?”

“I know it, Charls.
 
I remember all my past lives.
 
I
can teach you too if you’ll let me.”

I loved him so much but he was starting to make me
feel uncomfortable. “You don’t have to do that,” I said, “I believe you.
 
I love you so much.”

“We are always going to be together. For all eternity.
Don’t you forget that.”

The way he said it sounded like a threat, but I loved
him and I wanted to be with him forever.
 
It made me feel better about going to law school too, knowing that he’d
be waiting for me when I got back. Amber was so wrong about him.

“So, is everything ok between us now?” I asked feeling
relieved.

“Yeah; it’s not your fault you don’t remember our
other lives.
 
I will tell you about them
some time.”

“Tell me about the last time we were together.”

“Well, we were married.
 
You looked after the house; we had a nice
house, by the way, much better than this hut, and I went out to work as a
teacher.”

“You were a teacher? What did you teach?”

“English.
 
Do
you know that you take something from an old life into your new one with each
incarnation?”

“Really? So you took your writing?”

“Yeah.
 
And I
think you must have taken your arguing skills.”

“What do you mean?”

“We had quite a fiery relationship, you and I. You
were quite a feisty one.
 
That’s probably
why you want to do law; so you can argue with the prosecutors all day long.”

I laughed. “You’re so funny.”

He glared at me again. “This isn’t meant to be
funny.
 
I’m being serious here. Our
relationship is serious.
 
It didn’t work
out last time but I’m gonna make damn sure it does this time.”

Wow.
 
I knew he
was serious but it was starting to annoy me a little that he rarely laughed or
made jokes. “Why didn’t it work out?”

“Because it’s you and me, that’s why.” He took another
sip of his drink and went to turn off the radio.

I didn’t know what he meant by that but I decided to
change the subject. “I can’t believe it’s time for me to get going
already.
 
Time goes too fast when I’m
with you.”

He smiled. “It certainly does.
 
But remember.
 
We’ve got a whole eternity together.”

He pulled me into his chest in a deep hug but already
I was starting to feel a growing sense of uneasiness, which would only get
worse over the next few months.

-10-

A lot has happened in the past few months; especially
with Eddie.
 
I still love him but he’s
been so intense lately it’s been scaring me.
 
It started off with small things like my appearance.
 
He told me that my short blonde curls weren’t
me and that in most of our lives I’d been a brunette.
 
He practically begged me to dye it, saying
that if I didn’t it was proof I didn’t believe we were soul mates, so I dyed
it.
 
I don’t like it and both Mom and
Amber went crazy, saying I’d ruined my hair and once blondes dye their hair
they can never get their natural blonde color back.
 
They said it made me look pale and washed out
and I had to agree, but Eddie loved it, so it stayed.

 
I lost weight
too, not on purpose; I guess it was the stress of trying to please Eddie.
 
I didn’t want to lose him but he was becoming
so hard to please. It turned out he loved my new figure and he kept pestering
me to wear the gold dress.
 
He said that
it was fate I went to the attic sale and he knew I’d be there because in one
life we used to live there together and I’d worn that same dress.
 
I didn’t want to believe it.
 
Surely if I’d lived in that old house with
Eddie I’d only have good feelings about it, not horrible shivers. Mom barely
speaks to me now.
 
She says she’s worried
about me and that ever since I’ve met Eddie I’ve changed too much and I no
longer have my own opinions about anything.
 
She’s so wrong.
 
It’s just that I
spend so much time with Eddie I sometimes go along with what he wants just for
an easy life.
 
I’m an easy-going person;
she knows that.
 
I hardly ever see Amber
either.
 
She’s got a new boyfriend too.
He’s on the football team, which surprised me because those types usually
prefer the leggy blonde cheerleader, not the tomboy Goth.
 
We still sit together in school but she meets
Curt most breaks and lunchtimes so I’ve been going into the library to
revise.
 
I spend so much time with Eddie
that I barely have time to do it at home.

Amber thinks I’m going crazy.
 
I told her all about the past lives thing
between Eddie and me but she didn’t believe a word.
 
She uses tarot and claims she’s psychic but
she thinks the whole thing is a lie Eddie is telling to get me to do what he
wants.
 
I can’t believe she would think
that.
 
I’m going to law school next year
as long as I pass my exams.
 
I think
she’s just jealous.
 
Good friends stick
together no matter what but I think she just went out with Curt so she could
spend less time with me.
 
I think that
Eddie is going to propose soon; I can just feel it.
 
I don’t know where we’ll live and the wedding
will have to wait until after I get my law degree but things are getting so
serious that it would be weird if he didn’t.

-11-

I was right.
 
Last night Eddie proposed.
 
We
were eating strawberries and drinking fizzy wine at the side of the lake.
 
It was a beautiful spring evening and I loved
watching the baby ducks trying to keep up with their moms.
 
I always found it cute that all the little
babies line up behind their mom as she swims and when she gets out of the pond.
 
Their little waddles make me all warm inside.
I felt so content, leaning my head on Eddie’s lap as he dropped strawberries
into my mouth.

“You are so beautiful, you know,” Eddie said running
his hands through my hair.

“Thanks, and you’re so handsome,” I said reaching up
to grab his hand.

“You know, in most of our past lives we were married.”

I looked at him, my heart pounding wildly in my chest.
“Really?”

“I think we should do it in this life, don’t you?”

“Is that a proposal?”

He took out a small black box from inside the picnic
container and handed it to me. “What do you think?’

I opened it to see a small gold ring with a huge ruby
in the centre, in the shape of a heart. “Eddie, it’s beautiful,” I said.

“Is that a yes?”

I placed it on my finger.
 
It was a perfect fit. “Yes.”

I reached my arms around his neck and we had a long,
soft kiss. It felt strange having a ring on that finger.
 
I glanced at it again and a strange shivering
sensation crept across my stomach and up towards my throat. I recognized the
ring. An image flashed through my mind.
 
I was lying face down on the ground.
 
Soil was seeping out of my mouth and worms were crawling between my
fingers. I saw the ring gleaming in the moonlight.
 
I could feel a man’s foot in the small of my
back, pressing me into the ground. “Die, you cheating whore!” I heard him say.
I tried to turn over; to stop him and to look at him but then I felt something
heavy hit the back of my head and everything went black.

“Is everything ok?” Eddie asked.

The next thing I remember was opening my eyes to see
Eddie frantically dabbing my forehead with a wet piece of tissue. “Charlie, Oh
thank god you’re ok. I was worried sick.”

I tried to get up but my head hurt so much I collapsed
back onto the floor. “What happened?”

“You fainted.
 
Must have been the shock of getting engaged, eh?”

He lifted me up and I rested my aching head against
his chest.
 
I listened to his heartbeat
and it made me feel safe.
 
I remembered
the vision.
 
It had been so real.
 
Was I starting to remember the past lives
too? Had I worn that ring? What was going on? Maybe I was weak from the stress
of school and all the tests I had coming up. I needed to rest. “Can you take me
home please, Eddie.
 
I’m so tired.”

He started to pack away our picnic things and then
lifted me to my feet.
 
He let me rest on
him as we walked past the ducks, past the old mansion house and to the bottom
of the hill. “You take care and I’ll meet you here tomorrow,” he said.

“Ok. The ring’s beautiful by the way.
 
I can’t wait to marry you.”

“Me too.”

Mom was waiting for me at the door. “Oh Charls, I’m so
glad you’re back.
 
I’ve been having such
terrible thoughts.
 
I kept thinking
something bad had happened to you.
 
I
can’t explain why.”

“It’s ok, Mom, I fainted but I’m ok now.”

“I don’t trust that boy.
 
Do you think he put something in your food?”

“No, don’t be silly.”

But the thought wouldn’t leave my head as I tried to
get to sleep.
 
What if he had put
something in the wine or the strawberries? Why did I get such a bad feeling
from the ring?
 
I looked at it again and
was shocked to get a sharp pain between my shoulder blades.
 
It was so real it made me scream out.
 
Mom came running into my room.

“What’s going on?” She saw the ring. “What’s that?
Don’t tell me you’re going to marry him. Oh, Charls, you’ll be the death of
me.
 
Can’t you see he’s going to kill you?”

“Mom!”

“Look at you.
 
Your hair, your body; you look like a skeleton and now you’re
screaming.”

“I’m just stressed with the tests next week, that’s
all.
 
I need to get into law school, Mom.”

She shook her head. “And you think a boy like that is
going to let you leave him for three years? Don’t bank on it, Charlie.”

Once she knew I was ok she left the room and closed
the door softly behind her.
 
I heard her
sigh deeply behind the door.
 
I knew she
was right.
 
Eddie hadn’t said anything
yet but as I took the ring from my finger and placed it on my nightstand I knew
that the ring was his way of controlling me.
 
I was his now.

Every time I closed my eyes I saw the soil and the
worms and felt the pain in my back and then darkness.

I had another terrible dream. I was standing at the
side of a lake; just like the one by the mansion house, only this time it was
really dark and the rain was soaking through my gold dress.
 
I could see the ring on my finger and I was
trying to pull it off but it was stuck.
 
I ran to the lake and put my finger in the water, trying desperately to
remove it by making it wet; but it still wouldn’t come off.
 
Then I heard a man’s voice.
 
I couldn’t see him but I heard him. “You’ll
never leave me Emily Gray.
 
You’ll never
leave me.” So in the dream I swam into the lake.
 
The rain was getting heavier and the water
was so cold.
 
I swam as fast I could
trying to get away from him but then I felt him behind me, his breath smelling
of whisky. I felt his arms pulling me; at first he was pulling me towards him
but then he was pulling me down.
 
I
couldn’t breathe as water gushed into my mouth and into my lungs.
 
I saw darkness before jumping up suddenly and
throwing off my duvet.
 
I looked at the
ring, glistening there on my nightstand.
 
It was cursed.
 
I knew it
now.
 
And so was my relationship.

-12-

I was so glad it was Sunday.
 
I’d barely slept a wink last night. I’d had
so many strange dreams; all involving that ring.
 
I picked it up from my nightstand and turned
it over in my palm.
 
It was so beautiful
yet it gave me the creeps.
 
I placed it
on my finger and shuddered.
 
I’d texted
the good news to Amber last night and she’d asked me over.
 
I pulled back the drapes and glanced at the
mansion again; only this time I felt a wave of nausea.
 
I sat back on my bed and an image flashed
into my mind. I was looking out the window of the mansion and I could see this
house; the one I live in now.
 
I was
crying and I had the urge to jump out the window.
 
I heard footsteps behind me and I knew it was
him.
 
I felt his hands roaming all over
my body but I wouldn’t turn round to face him.
 
“You’re crying again,” he said and I felt like I’d given up.
 
I knew he was going to do something terrible
to me but I no longer cared.